Mystic Knight Online: Worlds to Sow
by jgkitarel
Summary: The World Seed is a tool created by Kayaba to ensure that Virtual Reality would remain a part of people's lives and Steel Phoenix has been "gifted" with the responsibility of determining what should be done with it. And others would certainly be interested in this development.
1. Chapter 1

Mystic Knight Online: Worlds to Sow

Chapter 1: Preparing the Land

 **April 2, 2025 - Nishitokyo, SAO Survivor's School**

"Thank _God_ , that's over," Harry said in relief as he and the others left the school's main building, his green eyes seeming to have slightly dulled from the exhaustion he felt. "That was worse than if I took all my end of year tests at the same time back in England."

Keiko clenched and unclenched her hands as she tiredly nodded.

" _Chert poberi,_ and I thought my High School entrance exams were bad," Nijika groaned out as she idly fingered her loose braid. "I wanna go back to SAO. At least the mobs would be direct in their trying to kill me instead of this."

"I thought I was ready for them," Asuna muttered, "But I was not ready. Now can one of you get that spike that was driven into my brain out?"

"Why?" Nijika asked.

"So I can stab the sadists who designed those tests," Asuna replied.

"Hey now, just because those tests gave it to us sideways is no reason to be contemplating homicide," Harry said.

"Maiming, on the other hand, is acceptable," Keiko added darkly.

"I can't feel my hands and I think I smell my brain cooking," Hiyori whimpered.

Kazuto remained silent, but the slump of his shoulders showed that he was exhausted by the entire thing. Then again, neither he, nor the others, were alone in that. Harry had seen the exhausted looks among other fellow survivors, so he knew that the tests were grueling to not only him or his friends.

Surprisingly enough, their uniforms didn't look overly rumpled, despite how they felt. Not that they cared about that little detail.

They had been busy with tests for six hours with only a few breaks to take care of necessities, with an hour break for lunch. They had all been divided into separate groups based on what their grade level should be, which Harry considered a wise move by the test proctors. Everyone who had been in a known group had been further divided up, or arranged in seats where they couldn't discuss things with their former comrades if that wasn't possible or practical.

All to prevent cheating or collaboration, of course. Not that any of their group would have felt the need to cheat. They took the tests, did as well as they could, though Harry knew he had completely bombed the test on Kanji and felt that his test on his general comprehension of Japanese was only so-so. He felt that he did fairly well on the mathematics and science portions of the tests, though.

As for the English test, the comprehension part was laughably easy for him, with the grammar one being only slightly more difficult. He was used to the critical evaluation of Minerva McGonagall, and Snape was a bloody Nazi when it game to grammar, using that as an excuse to mark down papers.

Well, he would find out when they came back next Friday to not only start the academic year, but to find out how they did and where they stood academically. Well, outside of being well behind their age groups, that is.

"So, should we walk to the station, or do you guys want to take the bus there?" Rain asked.

"As tempting as taking the bus would be, we'll probably get to the station faster if we walked," Asuna said. "It's close enough."

"And we'll be splitting up soon enough as it is," Harry noted. "Meet up at the Swords Rest in Yggdrasil City at around eight?"

"Actually, I think we should all just take the Seibu-Ikebukuro Line to Nerima Station and head to Furinkan," Kazuto disagreed. "We still have to discuss a few things that none of us want prying ears to hear. Does anyone have an issue with this?"

 **Nerima, Saotome-Tendo Dojo**

Akane heard the front door slide open, as well as Keiko's announcing her entrance and briefly wondered why her granddaughter was here. A quick use of her Ki sensing showed that Keiko wasn't alone, and she felt the wariness of the others noticeably increase. No matter, she recognized who was now here. Keiko had brought her friends by for some reason.

 _And it's interesting that they could sense my use of Ki when I was identifying them from the kitchen_ , she thought as she left the kitchen and walked into the living room to see them all in the genkan. _It means that their awareness of their surroundings has more of a component of Ki sensitivity than we realized. A real world equivalent to what they called... what was it again? System Awareness?_ They had all paused what they were doing, taking their shoes off and had gotten into a guarded formation that covered all angles until they realized it was her and relaxed.

All of them except Keiko.

"Guys, it's grandma," Keiko said with some amusement. "But… how did you sense her? I mean, I know we're all more aware of everything, but there are limits."

"I felt something," Harry said. "As if someone had focused their attention on us, but I didn't know what, or who for that matter, it was."

The others simply nodded.

"I think I know," Akane said. "We all wondered just how much came back with you from SAO. The awareness of your surroundings made sense, given your experiences, but your reactions make me believe that something else might be in play. And if I'm right, then you _all_ need training, if only for your own sakes." She focused some of her Ki, keeping it just under the surface.

Her granddaughter's fiancé had immediately focused on her. The other boy, Kazuto, had as well. As did the girl she recalled was named Asuna. The other two did so after a moment, but they had quickly scanned their surroundings first.

"Grandma…" Keiko said.

"So that's how your… I think you called it System Awareness, works in the real world," Akane said as she released her Ki, causing them all to relax. "Keiko knows what I did. Keiko, if you would explain?"

Keiko glanced at the others and took a breath. "What she did was focus her Ki," she said. Holding up a hand to forestall any exclamations of disbelief, she continued. "I know, it sounds a bit out there, but keep in mind one thing before you say it's impossible or that Ki isn't real that you all know that magic is real. I don't know if you've been shown it out here in the real world, though."

"When we got debriefed, one of them showed us a few things," Asuna said. "Including transforming something into something else in a way that was clearly not any kind of stage trick in case we had any doubts." She shook her head. "You really can't debate the existence of magic when someone waves a magic wand and violates the Law of Conservation of Mass by turning a chair into a teacup right in front of your eyes."

The others nodded, while Harry looked amused. "Actually, if you were to scan or touch the teacup, it would come across as hot." He shrugged at their looks. "What, half the teaching staff at my old school weren't just masters, they were overachievers. While I don't know if any of them have science degrees, they do have a basic understanding of science."

"That's what you meant when you said that magic and science aren't really in conflict," Keiko said.

"... Actually, from what K-blade here has said—"

"Kay Bladu?" Said black swordsman muttered.

"—it's rather like programming. I have access to certain things you don't, yes. But until I learn the language to nudge reality with, I'm at the same... user level as everyone else."

Kazuto chuckled. "In other words, you're at the level of basically using magic to do a "Hello World" program," he said.

"If that means that I'm still at the point where I'm learning the most basic elements of it, then yes," Harry said. "The leader of my school book club? He'd be like you are with computers, I think. A hacker. And I think Old Tommy would be a, what did you call the type of hackers who did it for criminal purposes or to simply cause harm?"

"A Black Hat," Kirito said.

"Yes, that," Harry said. "And appropriate, given that he called himself a Dark Lord, not that he's calling himself anything these days. And the reason magic and science aren't in conflict is due to them being different philosophies, dear. I remember telling you that once." He shook his head. "Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Ki, my dear. Explain."

"Short answer, it's the energy that all living things produce," Keiko said. "Long answer, it's a bioelectric field that all living things produce which can be sensed by other living organisms to some degree on an instinctive level. Our SA, that's System Awareness, grandma, was a close equivalent to it when we were all jaunting around Aincrad. I guess that our SA heightened our ability to sense it."

"But it's still untrained," Akane said. "And if you can sense and pinpoint me when I'm actively channeling Ki… that means that you can probably use it, if only unconsciously, to some degree."

"I take it that's not a good thing," Nijika surmised.

"It isn't," Akane said with some authority. "Trust me, I know that from experience."

"I've heard some stories," Harry said as Keiko nodded. "Something about you being the textbook definition of… well, when you got mad, _you got mad_. A berserker in other words."

"And not the kind who could control it when she got that way," Akane said. "If Ranma wasn't as tough as he is, I could have seriously hurt him on more than one occasion. It wasn't helped by other factors, but…" She shrugged. "My use of Ki was uncontrolled and unfocused by anything _but_ anger. I don't know how it would be with you all, but it's better to head any potential issues off."

Asuna nodded. "I would like to say that we're all good at controlling ourselves," she said. "But that doesn't mean that someone or something wouldn't trip our instincts at the wrong time and be considered a threat before we realized it and stopped ourselves." She grimaced. "With how we dealt with threats, that would only confirm what far too many people already suspect of us. Has Grandmaster Saotome planned on how he will approach our families?" She looked around. "Where is he, if I may ask?"

"In the dojo with Akira and Ko," Akane said. "And with you all here, and this… we all need to talk."

Asuna nodded. "That actually works," she said. "Not just about this, though I wonder how you will pitch it to our families, but because there is something we need to discuss and it's better to discuss it here in the Furinkan District anyway. I think having some outside perspectives on something would be beneficial to us."

"Magic related or AI related?" Akane asked.

Everyone but Keiko and Harry gave a startled twitch, which caused Akane to chuckle. "We set up a hard line feed to Keiko's Nerve Gear," she said. "While we weren't as… constant in watching her as what those watching Mister Potter were, we do know about what Strea and Yui really are."

Asuna shot a look at the two. "And you didn't think to inform us about this?" She asked them archly before shaking her head. "Never mind, I really shouldn't be surprised." She looked at Akane. "It's the latter, Master Saotome, and we should probably take this to the dojo."

Akane nodded. "Well then, let's go."

##

Ranma held up a hand. "Time!" He called out to his sons. Akira and Ko stopped their spar with the speed that long habit provided them and they backed away and bowed. As soon as they straightened, they turned and then bowed to him. It was a ritual that had been instilled into his branch of the Anything Goes School from the beginning, always show your opponent the proper respect first, then the teacher. He wasn't going to play the "I am a Master game" and have the deference only shown to the teachers.

One always showed respect to an opponent, even if, or especially if, you had none for them. No need to further cause further insult, after all. He felt Akane's Ki stretch out and wondered why she was, but a quick use of his own senses saw why. Keiko had come by unexpectedly, and she had guests with her.

His Ki was practically woven into the place, so he had no need to stretch. He sensed new people in his house as easily as he might hear them enter. Of course, there were limits. If he was out of sorts, such as the initial months after Keiko ended up in SAO, then he could easily miss someone. Even one with Ki as powerful as Ryoga had.

And knowing someone was present wasn't the same as knowing why anyway. Not unless they were giving off hostile intent.

And as he hadn't spoken up after calling the match over, both of his sons stretched their Ki out. An exercise of theirs, really. Stretch out the senses, feel the environment, and then pull it all back in. They may have reached the point where it wasn't an exercise in control for them, but twenty years under his tutelage had brought about habits that were hard to break.

And he felt the spike of wary alertness from his granddaughter and her companions. An alertness which quickly settled.

 _Interesting,_ he thought. _They sensed both Akira and Ko stretching out their Ki, as they apparently did for Akane earlier. It's just as I thought._ He had wondered just how some of their abilities in SAO translated out here in the real world. Their mention of System Awareness, the ability to have a feel for a digital world's rhythms and what was going on around them there, did seem to translate to the real world.

And now he knew why it did, even if he didn't know the precise mechanics of the how. Well, he knew _one_ of the mechanics; their survival instincts were still in a heightened state, even after nearly four months being free from SAO.

 _Not that it didn't take me years to calm my own instincts,_ he thought to himself.

He turned to the dojo's entrance and watched his wife escort Keiko and her friends in. He also felt a twinge of amusement as Harry shot both Akira and Ko wary, and also slightly irritated, looks. Their tendency to douse him with the Instant Jusenkyo water, gussy him up and then take pictures in the hopes of embarrassing him had been done enough times to start getting stale.

"Oh good, we're not interrupting anything," Akane said as Keiko and her friends bowed to the _shomen_.

"We had just finished up," Ranma replied. "And I noticed that they picked up on Akira and Ko extending their Ki out."

"Wait, they did?" Akira asked. "I mean I noticed that something made them cautious, but it was them picking up Ko and I doing our habitual exercise after a spar if dad isn't having us do something else?"

"I wondered how they often noticed the girls," Ko said with a nod. "Keiko likes to take pictures with her phone of the girls when she spots them." He said to Akira. "I always thought it was simply her, and probably Harry as well, simply picking them out because they're still working on blending in."

"Actually, Uncle Ko, that's how we often noticed them," Keiko said. "We're good at picking out anything or anyone that stands out to us. That we might have been sensing their Ki didn't really dawn on me until today, when Grandma used it since I came by unexpectedly."

Ko nodded. "And with you being in your school uniform, despite it not starting until next week… exams?"

Keiko nodded.

"How did they go?"

"I'll let you know after my brain stops trying to dribble out of my ears and I get feeling back into my hands," Keiko replied.

"Yours is only trying to dribble out?" Harry asked drily. "I'm pretty sure mine was well on its way to being pureed by the time we hit the Japanese language portions. After the kanji one… yeah, it was more soup than grey matter."

"Kanji gave you trouble?" Akira asked with a mocking tone. "With how well you speak Japanese, I would have thought you would have had an easier time."

"And how much trouble did you have learning English?" Ko asked slyly.

"That's different, Ko," Akira argued. "And I doubt he had someone like Ninomiya-sensei teaching it to him."

"You're only saying that due to how she handled you falling asleep in class," Ko shot back.

Ranma quieted both sons with a look. He turned back to his granddaughter and her friends. "I would have thought all of you would have headed home, maybe to go online and hang out there," he said. "So, what brings you all here?"

"Grandmaster Saotome, if I may?" Asuna asked.

Ranma nodded.

"Thank you," Asuna said. "That pretty much was the intent, but Kazuto reminded us that we have something we needed to discuss that required a certain degree of privacy that we wouldn't have gotten inside ALO."

"So why here?" Ranma asked.

"Coming here was Keiko's idea," Asuna replied. "And with how your wife managed to determine that the reason was either magic related or AI related, you all clearly know that Strea and Yui aren't human."

Ranma nodded. "We do," he said. "And you need to discuss something related to them?"

"Not them," Asuna said. "There is another AI. We only met her for the first time last week, but we've known about her since we took in Yui and Strea." She paused for a moment. "She was the same AI who was responsible for SAO's running and goes by the name CARDINAL. She went into ALO like Yui and Strea did, but… she was finishing something that Kayaba started in SAO."

Ranma's eyes narrowed and he shoved down the flash of anger that the name of the man who trapped his granddaughter in SAO brought forward. There was no point in holding any to a man who has been dead for months. "You have my attention," he said.

"She finished it but she wants us to be the ones to decide what should be done with it," Asuna explained. "Ki- Kazuto, if you would, as I know you are considering taking her up on this."

Kazuto blinked as Ranma directed his attention to him. "Um, right," he said hesitantly before taking a deep breath. "First, I'll like to summarize why I am considering taking CARDINAL up on what Kayaba was doing as a side project in SAO that CARDINAL finished and dropped into our laps. Is that all right?"

"It would give us some context, as Miss Yuuki has mentioned that you, at least, are seriously considering going forward with it," Ranma answered drily.

"Right," Kazuto said with a nod. "With how much money and work went into making SAO what it was, there is no way any corporation would sink the time and costs to develop anything like it on their own just to make it their own. Not without government backing, which even Kayaba needed. ALO uses the same engine as SAO since they took it from the beta servers, which is why it took them less than a year to make it, rather than five years and over a trillion yen."

Ranma nodded.

"What Kayaba was working on, was something that would streamline the VR development process," Kazuto continued. "CARDINAL pitched it as a way for people to create worlds and be the heroes of their own stories, which was one of Kayaba's stated reasons to us for what he did. I doubt what he told us was the extent of them but it does work as an explanation for the 'why'."

"You suspect more?" Akira asked.

"Uncle, we all suspect that he had other reasons," Keiko said. "Harry told him up front right before the confrontation where we killed him that what he did and the way he did it was completely unnecessary. We just don't have an idea of _what_ those other reasons are. If there were any." She looked at Kazuto. "Kazuto, if you would continue?"

Kazuto nodded. "What she gave us was something that is the core for the entire system that makes SAO and ALO, stripped down to the essentials needed to make such a system work," he said. "A full on development kit. It won't have the same capabilities that SAO had and ALO has, but what CARDINAL implied basically means that VR games of similar caliber can be more easily made." He took another breath. "Knowing Kayaba, he would have taken how SAO has slowed the development of such to a crawl and intended to make this open source. But CARDINAL gave us the choice of what to do with it. We can send it out… or we can delete it, and she wouldn't stop us. I know what she would prefer us to do, but she is leaving the decision to us."

"Why you all?" Ranma asked.

"Because we have reasons to either accept it or refuse it," Kazuto replied. "For me, accepting it would allow me to create something for Strea and Yui so that they can move their primary data somewhere else and not risk what happened when we hit that glitched quest. It was… bad for them and they _are_ members of Steel Phoenix. We take care of our own."

"That's as good a reason as any to accept it," Hiyori said. "Strea and Yui are our friends. Family really."

"And it would be nice to have a place to meet up that we can call our own," Nijika added. She then gave Harry and Keiko a sly look. "And those two… well, it would allow them to be a proper married couple again."

Both Harry and Keiko blushed and shot her flat looks, but didn't say anything to counter it. Whether it was because they were unlikely to be believed and they knew it, or that was their intent were both equally valid possibilities in Ranma's mind. Besides, he heard the teasing note in her voice. "Would you mind if I give an outside perspective?" He asked.

"That would be appreciated," Asuna said.

Ranma nodded looked at his wife and sons. "You all should offer your input as well." He then turned his attention to the group. "From what I can determine, this AI- you called her CARDINAL?" They nodded. "Well, CARDINAL clearly wants you all to do this. If the Nerve Gear was still a thing, I would say not to, but it isn't. The AmuSphere doesn't carry the same risks. That we know of, but that is neither here nor there. However, the decision is yours, and you have already decided, even if you haven't recognized that fact. All of you are inclined to do this.

"I don't see anything wrong with it, but I want you to ask yourselves this: is doing so, at least right now, the right thing?"

"Grandpa, what do you mean by that?" Keiko asked.

Ranma smiled at his granddaughter. "You can do so at any time, right?" He asked.

Keiko nodded.

"Well then, that means that you can also keep it to yourselves for now," he said. "Give your AI friends a place. And then, what harm will come from waiting for a while? Maybe to give some other company a chance to see if they can develop a competitor? And if they can't in… hmm… give it a half a year. If they can't do it in half a year, then release it to the public. You don't need to rush into it."

Kazuto nodded. "And in that time, we can figure out if there are any potential issues with it," he said. "Not to mention play around with it. Come up with some tutorials, maybe even do a guide for it. If only to help people take the first step on the first day."

Ranma nodded. "And now, we go to a new subject," he said. "You all can sense Ki to some degree. Keiko, I can understand. She was taught the basics of it. But the rest of you weren't, and if Akane made the same observation, then she will have told you why that can be dangerous."

They all nodded.

"I know that Keiko and Mister Potter are pretty much done with their physical therapy," Ranma continued. "Their final appointment is later this week. Is it the same for the rest of you?"

"My next one is on the ninth," Nijika said. "That'll probably be the last one."

"I had my last one yesterday," Asuna said.

"Mine's in two days," Kazuto confirmed.

"I finished my therapy three days ago," Hiyori added.

Ranma nodded. "Good," he said. "I will make arrangements to meet with your families over the next two weeks and I hope they have no issues. You all need training, if only for your own sakes."

 **April 3, 2025 - Tokyo Harbor, Dock off MS Versperine**

Gabriel kept his impatience to himself as he waited for the customs officials to finish checking the ship and the bags of everyone who was disembarking the ship. It was a routine that every ship went through when they were known to have gone to other ports, whether they were from another country or not, so it wasn't as if the _Vesperine_ was being singled out for this. Besides, the ship had been sufficiently modified enough and the crew, both official and unofficial, was good at hiding its true purpose.

True, a sufficiently attentive customs official could figure out that the crew was up to something. But any customs official worth his job knew to suspect that of any ship and crew that came into the harbor. Smuggling had been around since humans were nothing more than scattered tribes of hunter-gatherers and someone wanted something that was forbidden in their tribe, after all.

Not that it was difficult to know which officials could be persuaded to not look too hard, which is why they had docked this day and at this pier. Corruption was everywhere if one knew where to look and the CIA was very good at knowing where to look.

And if taking advantage of corruption wasn't on the table, then simple blackmail would often suffice. The director of the harbor had ties to Yakuza groups that the ones that were known to have ties to this harbor were enemies of, to say nothing about some of his tastes.

He made a mental note to inform his superiors that it might be best to place an anonymous tip on the harbor master. It took both bribery and blackmail this time, and the price of it all was reaching the point where it would be best to burn some assets.

There were always other potentials that could be used.

 _And speaking of potential assets, it's a shame that Casals got himself killed in SAO,_ he thought. _Then again, the man couldn't keep his hatred contained enough in that place. He could have been useful, but perhaps it's for the best. That man's absolute rancor for Gooks and Japs could have become a liability in time._

That sometimes happened in his line of work. Find people and things that could be useful if properly used, which he was good at in both regards, and they sometimes got taken out of the picture before they could be used. And Vassago Casals, for all his sociopathy and his hatred making him willing to potentially make the world _burn_ to satisfy it, could have been useful.

Dangerous if not properly handled, but useful. And even better, easily discarded and taken off the board if the need arose without anyone being overly concerned. Hell, the Japs would have probably _thanked_ him for it.

Such was life, really. And it wasn't like his plans depended on the man.

No, his plans depended on _so much more_ than someone who would have been an attack dog, though he would have been good at that. No, his plans required people and resources outside simply having a sociopathic killer on his payroll to come to proper fruition.

He knew about the supernatural and what it might prove to him.

Not only whether souls truly existed— but whether they could be created or destroyed by the acts of a single man.

Whether mankind can usurp the gods themselves.

And with him operating within the purview of a role that would allow it, investigating the potential of Virtual Reality for training agents in new skills or making ones who couldn't take the field useful for more than pushing papers, he had the time and resources, not to mention being able to call in the necessary talents, to see if that was possible. Especially as they learned more and more about the system that Kayaba had created, even if everything about ALO was credited to a company that the man had no ties to while he was still alive.

It would advance his interests and, by extension, the interests of the United States. He was a true patriot, after all- his interest could not help but match his nation's.

 **Chiyoda, SAO Task Force Headquarters**

Seijiro Kikuoka looked over the reports on how the survivors of SAO were adjusting to the real world. In four months, most of them seemed to have settled in as well as they could. Most of the younger adults were employed or in the process of finding employment and the older ones were content to retire and settle down, given their ages.

Those employed or looking for it might not find the jobs they are best qualified for, but they were at least being productively occupied. The younger ones were potentially more concerning, as keeping their status as SAO Survivors, with the potential traumas that may entail, quiet was going to be impossible. The school set up for them ensured that.

A sadly unavoidable consequence, but one that could be managed long enough for the entire issue to fade into the background enough to become a non-issue. The younger ones were in the best position to be nurtured into becoming assets for Japan's future. Future leaders, executives, CEOs, or even researchers… the ones who could rise to those positions were there. They just needed fertile soil to be planted in.

And they were used to adversity and rising in spite of it. SAO had been their crucible, separating the steel from the slag. Now it was time to allow it to cool enough so that it can be properly shaped.

For all that several would like to claim otherwise, the VR technology pioneered by Kayaba was here to stay. The SAO Survivors lived in a virtual world for two years. They lived there, they survived its dangers, and they _thrived_. Even now, months after SAO was ended, the teams of sociologists were analyzing the recorded footage to see the culture and society that those trapped in SAO had developed there.

How they governed themselves. How they all begun to fall into roles. How they turned what could have devolved into anarchy into what could be loosely considered a functioning society. People with no training in it, no experience in adapting to new conditions, no precedent to follow. People who should have gone down the path that Golding had outlined in his Nobel Prize winning book, _Lord of the Flies,_ and become savages… had begun to form a functioning society.

One that had abandoned many of the niceties of modern civilization in their focus on survival and beating Kayaba at his own game, true. But it didn't change the fact that they had managed to form the basics of a functioning society. One with its own culture and evolving rules of behavior.

But that was not what he was interested in. SAO was a world of its own, with its own rules, and how humans adapted to them, while definitely worth perusing, was only the surface of the potentials within what he saw.

He put the reports to the side and turned to his computer. Entering the password, he brought up a file and looked over a possible project that he had in mind. Twenty years in the JGSDF before retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel, at least officially, had shown him that Japan, for all that it was still one of the top spenders in defense, couldn't even come close to matching the world's military titans. They had limitations due to their own laws and treaties, but were very capable when operating within those limitations.

And those same laws and treaties did not preclude investing in what the technology Kayaba pioneered could lead to. One of which, in his mind, would be the most worthwhile investment of time and resources.

Using Full-Dive technology to help train soldiers, law enforcement and emergency responders, while useful, was too narrow in scope. If Japan wanted to get the most out of what Kayaba had created, they would have to think bigger.

True Artificial Intelligence, which he had good reason to suspect that the man had accomplished, even if he couldn't prove it. If that was true, and of the puzzle that Kayaba had left behind could be cracked, then Japan could have something that would change the game.

Wars were wasteful in materials, property and lives. With AIs, he could find ways to protect Japan without putting a single one of its citizens in danger. With AIs, he could ensure that Japan's cities weren't in the crosshairs of nations who would want to destroy it. With AIs, he could prevent Japan from being subjugated and humiliated.

And if it required him to sacrifice them just to save one human life, so be it. If it required him to be considered a madman, albeit one who was trying to do the best he could for his nation… he would still do so. He had Japan's best interests at heart, regardless of the methods he may be required to use.

But he also knew that just because he saw what he was planning as being within Japan's best interests didn't meant that everyone else would see it that way. He just hoped that he didn't become a monster in the process. And if he did, that someone would stop him and finish it all with clean hands and without the burdens of what may have to be done.

He would take those burdens upon himself so that someone else wouldn't have to.

A shame he hasn't been able to meet with the SAO Survivors he wanted to. He was warned off trying to arrange such a meeting and he understood what that meant. They had some political protection and the ones behind it wanted them to be left alone. Understandable, considering that they were the ones to put an end to SAO.

They should be allowed to enjoy the freedom and peace they had fought so hard for two years to gain. They had earned it.

It was men like him whose job it was to make sure that they could enjoy it.

 **April 6, 2025 - Undisclosed Location, Shiba Compound**

Harry almost stumbled as Mister Ikegami brought him to the compound through their own means of quickly traveling. Stepping, if he recalled. While nowhere near as energetic in feeling as going via floo, let alone as uncomfortable as what he had heard regarding apparition and using portkeys could be, he still found that staying on his feet required some effort.

Of course, that could be because every muscle he had was tired and sore in the first place. He hasn't ached this much since his first year at Hogwarts and got accepted onto the Quidditch Team. The training regimen Oliver Wood subjected the Gryffindor team was notorious at the school, so he thought he knew what to expect in how he would feel.

How wrong he had been.

Keiko's grandparents and eldest uncle had been _very_ thorough in seeing just where he was physically in order to know what they had to work with and what they would have to work on. At least in the physical sense.

So he was now tired, sore, and was likely to start aching something fierce before long.

He was looking forward to a relaxing bath and to rub the liniment he was given onto his muscles when Mister Ikegami reminded him that today was also the day where he would be meeting with Remus and Klein… _No, Professor Lupin and Mister Tsuboi,_ he reminded himself. _They are here in their capacity as tutors, so the forms must be observed._

He would be meeting with them so that they could go over where he stood with regards to what he remembered about using magic. What spells he could still do. What theory he could recall. Things like that.

And it was likely to take a few hours. Keiko's comment about meeting him in ALO after dinner if he was up to it now made sense. If he was going to simply rest and recover, then she asked him to call her or send her a text.

He had heard about the Japanese ethos when it came to studying. Now he was about to experience it.

##

Remus shared a look with Ryotaro as Harry finished the last series of spells they asked him to cast. A mix of _Lumos, Nox, Wingardium Leviosa, Finite,_ and several other charms. So far, he had cast most of the spells without having to be talked through them, showing that he hadn't forgotten as much of the practical aspects of using magic as he did the theory.

In fact, from what Remus was able to see, Harry's ability with transfiguration had grown, despite him not having learned any new spells in two years and having forgotten a good number of the ones he had learned before being trapped in Sword Art Online. Then again, transfiguration relied very heavily on visualization and then manipulating the magic to accomplish the result. Without either, then the spell would not work anyway.

"He has experience in directly manipulating magic," was all that Ryotaro said. "Everyone who could use it developed a few tricks that allowed them to bend SAO's rules. So it's not surprising that some of that carried over." He gave Harry a searching look. "I wonder if that's all that he brought with him, though."

Remus was curious what he meant by that, but felt that it was a question that could be asked later. Right now, he had a pupil to inform where he stood.

"All right, Harry, we're done with the evaluation," Remus said.

Harry relaxed and gave off a quiet sigh of relief. "How far behind am I from where I should be?" He asked.

"Kid, I'll be honest, your grasp of theory sucks," Ryotaro said bluntly.

Remus was about to chide the man when he noticed Harry nod as if he expected that answer. "And in actually using magic?" He asked.

"Rusty," Ryotaro replied. "You don't remember all the spells, no surprise there, but your ability to use magic wasn't hurt by your little tour of Aincrad. If anything, I wouldn't be surprised if you will have an easier time with learning new spells than you may have in the past. How much of your unique skill involved you using magic?"

"Quite a bit," Harry replied. "And I was well on my way to being able to tell what my magic felt like before then. I... may have tried to see if I could use a sword as an improvised wand a few times. Didn't work, but it did get me to notice something. After I got the skill, well… I could use magic, so long as they were within SAO's rules. More charms related now that I think about it."

"But your skill at manipulating magic was maintained, and you had to be able to visualize it, right?"

Harry nodded. "When I managed to develop the Earth Wall OSS, I first did it that way," he said after a thoughtful moment. "It got made into an actual skill afterward due to the system classifying it as such, with requirements that had to be met, but I knew how it felt. Every time I used it… they felt the same way as that first time. And… well now, if the requirements of being in that particular affinity for a set period were to be considered the words for the spell, with the way of transitioning into that affinity being the wand movements…" He began to chuckle. "That brilliant bastard. He probably didn't even know what he was doing when he set it up that way, but he did."

Remus blinked while Ryotaro looked thoughtful for a moment before he chuckled himself. "What am I missing?" He asked the two of them.

"Sorry, sorry," Harry apologized. "It's just that I'm now realizing that Kayaba managed to do something that could revolutionize magic despite not knowing how it worked."

"And that would be?"

"He managed to, without even knowing it, create a computer program that could serve as a substitute for using a focus and words for a spell," Ryotaro said. "It won't replace them any time soon, though. A focus and the words used are far more versatile, for one thing."

Harry nodded and then battled with a yawn. He gave in and managed a tired smile. "But for an environment like SAO, it was more than enough."

They all heard a growling noise.

"And with that, I believe that it's time for us to call it a day," Remus said with some amusement. "I know that Harry will want to get something to eat, and maybe some rest."

 **Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

CARDINAL moved about her workshop as she went over the data she had gathered. With the World Seed completed and the entire matter out of her hands, she had decided to go over some anomalies that she had found.

Nothing that impacted the World Seed, thankfully, but some of the data from Aincrad seemed to have latched onto it when she uploaded it to ALO. It was separate, and the data wasn't doing anything, so she had decided to leave the data be while she completed the project.

With it done, she could dedicate a few processes to examining them. Most were simple fragments. Items, bits of buildings, small things. Well there was that one NPC, Kizmel, from the Elven War questline, whose data, while inactive, came through intact.

That some SAO data bled through when she uploaded the seed wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility. Especially since she, Strea and Yui also came to ALO. With how much data went forward with them all, it was easily within the realm of possibility for excess data to come as well.

But she didn't expect for a fully intact NPC, especially one that had been growing and changing with SAO to a greater degree than most. After looking over Kizmel's code, CARDINAL realized that, while Kizmel was still only an NPC, the complexity of her code was approaching the point where it would begin to grow on its own without external inputs or influences.

Kizmel's data indicated that the NPC was likely a nascent AI.

Also, she recalled that both Kirito and Asuna had managed to bond with Kizmel in Aincrad. Perhaps they would like to know that a friend from there did manage to survive. Also, Yui and Strea might like a new sister. Or maybe Kizmel would be a more akin to a cousin, considering that she started as an NPC, rather than be designed from the ground up as an AI.

She wondered if Kayaba even realized it. While the possibility of using the technology to create a world that could grow and house AIs was something he had mused on, she could not say with any certainty if he even tried it. Perhaps he had and simply didn't log it, which would have been unlike him. The man was scrupulous at keeping records, and she had perfect recall of all of them.

So how had an admittedly advanced NPC grown so much?

As tempted as she was to call on Steel Phoenix for this, she decided not to. She was the administrative AI for Sword Art Online, Kizmel was her responsibility to make a decision on what to with her.

Though she would consult with Freyja, her Alfheim Online counterpart, on the matter. She was inclined to introduce Kizmel to Alfheim Online, and she would need her counterpart's permission to do so. Especially if her suspicions about Kizmel proved to be correct.


	2. Fresh Growth

Mystic Knight Online: Worlds to Sow

Chapter 2: Fresh Growth

 **April 8, 2025 - Nerima**

Harry paused as he saw the sushi cart with its familiar chef and headed over to it. He had seen it and its proprietor far too many times for it to be coincidence. Probably one of his watchers. The question was who he was watching him for. The Shibas? The Ministry of Shugenja? The regular Japanese Government? Someone else?

His stomach reminded him of why he was out and about. Sirius had done the grocery shopping this week and all they had was instant dishes and meals that could be thrown into the microwave. While he had no issues with instant ramen, udon and other quickly cooked meals, let alone the stuff that he could simply nuke, he wanted something a bit more substantive.

So he was out to grab something and then hit the market to pick up ingredients so he could cook something up. Miss Hanaori had taught him a few things, mostly simple recipes, but she also showed him how to look them up online. She even knew of a few sites that were in English, too. Miss Shirashi's endorsement had been interesting- "so easy, I can do it." Apparently, the elder of the female Shiba retainers was still learning her way around the kitchen. He hadn't pried.

Well, he was originally heading to Ucchan's, the okonomiyaki there was good, but he decided that some quick sushi wouldn't hurt. He gave an idle wave at one of the Amazon watchers, who usually kept an eye on Keiko, but one or two did sometimes watch him.

Either to keep him out of trouble or simply to be there to keep him and Keiko from getting too romantic, he didn't know. He certainly didn't ask. There were, after all, limits to what could be asked someone in good taste, regardless of culture.

"Welcome to Umemori Sushi!" the proprietor said, grinning broadly as Harry sat at one of the stools set before the cart. "A pleasure to have you, Mr. Potter!"

Harry just nodded. He had dined out enough at this point to know that being too thankful toward an establishment's staff could be as bad as not being gracious enough. "I'm in your hands," Harry said simply, waving off the neatly printed menu.

The sushi chef gave a brief bow, and started reaching into his cooler.

"I am the first of my family to serve as a Shiba retainer," the chef said as he pulled out some of his selection, at one point reconsidering and putting something back and switching it for another cut.

"Ah. So they're why we keep seeing you, then," Harry said. He assumed that, unless the older man thought their privacy was secure, he wouldn't be talking about such things openly. Then again, this was the Furinkan District of Nerima.

"Yes. Also, I offered to be available to you as we have something in common."

Harry raised his eyebrow at the man shaping rice for nigiri.

"Tell me, Harry, do you know where your western wand movements originated?"

Harry smirked. "My Charms teacher went off about it one day when someone was complaining about their Ancient Runes and Writings course work. Not even my year, but it set him off for about three hours. Flitwick's often been animated, but that was one of the few times I've seen him proper mad, Mr. Umemori."

"Ah, yes, you went to Hogwarts," Genta said as he paused in cutting fish, seemingly pleased at his level of formality as well as his academic history. "You should look up some of Flitwick-sensei's papers, he has a good range of beginner to advanced writings. And so...?"

"Like most places where a standardized magic system comes after some form of writing," Harry said, smiling as the tuna was set before him laid on small rectangles of sushi rice with a bit of wasabi between the sashimi and the rice. "The gestures mimic the writing- in our case, mainly the Celtic Ogham and the Elder Futhark of the Norse. They then got abstracted from there, and as Arithmancy and spell crafting developed, movements that had their own meanings were added. I'm given to understand by when I've seen the other Shiba retainers and Lady Shiba use magic that here in Japan, it's remained less abstract?"

"In a manner of speaking, but there is a reason most practitioners of Onmyodo use brush-pen as foci in this part of the world," Genta agreed. He paused as Harry dipped a piece of the tuna in plain soy sauce and popped it in his mouth. Genta smiled as Harry let it linger on his tongue a moment, then chewed and swallowed.

"... the rice. I... wow, I think I finally get why Asuna and Keiko keep going on about comparing the sushi rice where we eat, that was magic- er, metaphorically. You say 'most' use a brush-pen?"

"You should see the curry rice I make once a year on Boy's day- they love my rice in that too," Genta smirked. "I always had a great degree of magical talent, held back by one simple fact."

"Oh?"

"My calligraphy has never gotten beyond that of a fourth grader," Genta said bluntly. "And yet, today... well, your Professor Flitwick has contacted me a few times about _my_ journal publications."

Harry blinked. "You improved your penmanship that much?"

"No," Genta said, pulling out a cellphone and flipping it open. "I have a legitimate hand eye coordination issue. It's never going to go away, and I _could_ fight the uphill battle..." He tapped a few keys on the phone, and smiled. "But I decided there's this valley between the mountains that can get be there."

And the sushi chef pointed his phone at the counter, pushing a button. " _Origami- Shishawotsukawasu_ ," he intoned.

It wasn't until the mist coalesced into a golden crayfish that Harry realized that he had seen something like that. "I've seen something like that before. A…" He thought for a moment. It was a specific charm that was notoriously difficult to cast, but what was it? "Damn, I can't quite remember what it's called."

"You're thinking of the Patronus Charm," Genta said. "It's not quite the same, though similar. Onmyodo specializes in things like what the Patronus is known to do. While what I did wouldn't be useful against demons like a Patronus would be, it's handy with passing messages on."

"You have individual spells for that?" Harry asked. "Of course you do. Less abstraction means more specific uses in a spell. More efficient and probably requiring less power, but at the cost of being less versatile."

Genta blinked. "And you haven't studied magic in two years, with only two years of education there," he said. "Experience from SAO?"

Harry nodded. "We weren't only fighting," he said. "Kirito and I did a comparison between our unique skills. How both were potentially game changing and yet how different they were. He thought it to be the difference between the potentially versatile nature of Mystic Blade when compared to the more specialized nature of Dual Wielding. Anyway, you were saying?"

"Right, my spell," Genta replied. "Well, in our terms- Origami is a pun meaning 'folded kami', in this case, a family spirit 'kept folded in your heart'. This is the spell's messenger form- Go tell Take-chan I'm talking with Harry," Genta said, addressing the summoned form. The crayfish set off through the air, fading as it went.

"You cast a spell with your cellphone," Harry realized.

"You used magic in a VR setting," Genta noted, smirking.

Harry slowly smiled back. "I've been thinking..."

Genta snorted. "I've found when that scares people, I'm on the right track."

"Because you're getting ideas?" Harry asked knowingly.

"And your friends were the same way?"

Harry chuckled. "Less scared and more resigned to the latest insanity I was about to do that would put my life in more danger than it already was in a battle," he said. "Asuna was the planner of us all. I was the one who came up with things in the middle of a fight when the plan was either shot to hell, or an opportunity struck. They usually worked, but sometimes…" He grimaced. "Just because it usually worked doesn't mean that it still wasn't crazy and at times stupid."

"Such as flying a dragon?" Genta asked with some amusement.

Harry chuckled. "You know, that one wasn't even my idea," he replied. "It was Klein's. Kirito and I were just drunk enough to go along with it."

##

Keiko let out a grunt as she hit the ground from the throw her uncle subjected her to before quickly rolling out of the way of the expected follow through. Unlike Harry, who had been subjected to the kind of exhausting physical evaluation that was her family's way of seeing just what they had to work with and build on, her evaluation was meant for them to see what they had to rebuild, with her skills now being tested.

Before SAO, she had just been considered proficient with the basics, by her family's standards. Now, they were evaluating just how much she remembered and how much she had to unlearn from her experiences in SAO.

And her combat instincts had to be tempered as well. She had spent two years fighting battles where the possibility of dying was very real, and her responses in a fight reflected that unless she exercised a conscious effort to restrain them. If her grandparents or uncles weren't as good as they were, then sparring would have been out of the question after the first match.

That didn't stop any spars from having specific restrictions on them, or at least one of her grandparents there to intervene.

As it stood, she was getting her ass handed to her. Not unexpected really, but the fact that her body wasn't reacting as quickly as she saw her uncles movements coming was galling. She knew she had a long way to go before she had even a fraction of the physical capability she was used to, but the spars were driving it home.

"And time!" Ranma called out.

Keiko relaxed her body from the readiness it had instinctively gone into and straightened. She bowed to her uncle and then bowed to her grandfather.

"You did well there, Keiko," Ranma said. "You made far fewer mistakes than expected and I think you know where they stemmed from."

Keiko nodded. "I do," she said. Oh, she knew _exactly_ what her mistakes were. Less in terms of skill, mistakes could get one killed in SAO, after all. No, it was how she initially approached the spars, and her uncle gave her precious little time to readjust.

"Care to explain?"

"I'm still trying to move as if I'm in SAO with the capabilities I have there," she explained. "While I can see the attacks coming, I am trying to move as if I have the speed and strength to do as I would have there, which, as Uncle Akira repeatedly demonstrated by tossing me around, is not the case." She shot her uncle a wry look.

"Don't sell yourself short, Keiko," Akira responded. "You started taking that into account pretty quickly and started adjusting your movements to reflect that you aren't as physically capable out here. Yet at least."

"Uncle, I don't plan on dedicating the kind of time needed to get my physical abilities that high out in the real world," Keiko replied. "Even if I did, I personally think that I would only get to the point where I was when we were halfway up that castle, basically around the level of a solid Middy."

"You might be surprised," Ranma said. "But training to the same level as us was never your goal even before SAO. You were forced to get to that level there out of necessity, but now that you are out here in the real world, your priorities are different."

"Of course they are," Keiko said. "I might go into ALO, but a lot of that is because I can go into the Virtual World and see it as it was meant to be, a new world to explore and adventure in. Not what SAO sadly ended up being."

"And given what your mother has said-" Akira began.

Keiko shook her head. "No uncle, it's not so that Harry and I can get around the restrictions on how far we can take things, though that is a nice bonus should we decide to take advantage of it," she said.

"You walked right into that one, Akira," Ranma said with a chuckle as his eldest son sputtered. "I know you've been told this before, Keiko, but I will say it again. SAO has been a bad influence on you."

 **Alfheim, Arun**

Kirito guided Asuna to the restaurant that had been recommended to him by Harry. His friend had easily divined that he was doing this for the sake of taking Asuna to some place for the two of them to simply have some time together. Outside of some light teasing, his friend simply gave him the location of a place with the caveat that both he and Asuna should dress nicely. Not formal, but more along the lines of how they dressed when they went on their last outing together in Aincrad.

Harry hadn't called it a date, but Kirito knew full well that his friend had only not called it a "not date" by the slimmest of margins if his obvious amusement was any indication. Well, he had to expect that from Harry. He and Asuna had teased him and Silica often enough, so they were going to love taking this and putting it into a romantic context for their own amusement.

Kirito would admit, he didn't find the idea of him and Asuna entering into a relationship to be objectionable, but the real world would put paid to anything deeper than friendship for the time being, if not longer. The two of them came from different walks of life. Asuna was from the upper-class, he was from the middle-class. Upper middle-class, but still middle-class. And unlike SAO, things like that mattered in the real world.

 _Stop thinking about that,_ he thought as he held the seat out for Asuna to sit in. _What will happen, will happen. Just enjoy what you have right now and don't worry about what may be._

As he sat down, Asuna looked around the restaurant. "You know, I am beginning to think that those two are trying to hook us up," she said.

"It wouldn't surprise me," Kirito said. "If only for them to maximize the teasing they can then give us."

"Their way of getting back at us for the times we teased them?" Asuna asked with a chuckle.

"Or their seeing more than there was because of our last date in SAO," Kirito replied. "Don't get me wrong, if SAO had continued longer, I can see things progressing that way, but with us having gotten free of SAO when we did, the real world is…" he grimaced. "Let's just enjoy a good meal and not worry about that."

Asuna nodded. "Yes, let's."

The two of them were handed menus by an NPC waitress, a Salamander if her red hair and tanned skin tone was any indication. They quickly made their orders, both noting how this place was like some of the fancier places in SAO with that little detail.

The waitress returned with their drinks in short order, wine for both of them. Kirito picked up the glass and took a sip. It wasn't bad. Sweeter and fruitier than SAO's wines were, but not bad at all.

"I'm surprised you didn't order beer," Asuna said.

"Let's just say that Harry's taste in beer from SAO has spoiled me," Kirito replied. "And ALO's beer is lacking in comparison to what could have been found in SAO. And we've both heard Harry's complaints about that."

"I wouldn't know," Asuna noted. "Beer wasn't my thing there, and if you and Harry are claiming it is lacking, then I certainly won't try it here." She looked at her wine. "This doesn't even taste the same, but it is still good."

Kirito nodded. "That it is."

That was how it went for now. Just sitting together and sharing fine company.

Real or virtual world, Kirito reflected, there were worse investments of his time.

 **Yggdrasil City**

Strea looked at Silica, who was moving gingerly. "What happened with her?" She asked Harry.

"Training," he replied. "I felt like that after they evaluated just how out of shape I'm in, and then went through the ringer with my tutors on my special education track." He looked at her. "It's more mental. She was sore when she logged on, so the memory of that carried over. It'll settle down in a bit."

"It's still a pain in the ass," Silica groaned. "And given how often my uncle tossed me around, my ass hurts! Hell, my _tail_ hurts, and I don't have one in the real world."

"We do have tailbones, dear," Harry said. "And if you got tossed around like you say you have been, you've probably landed on yours a few times." He smirked. "I would offer to kiss it and make it better, but we're in public."

"I am not walking into that trap and telling you two to get a room before you do something salacious right in the streets," Strea said. "That's being saved for your anniversary, which is next week if I recall. So, should I find Argo so we can sell tickets?"

Harry and Silica both looked at her and then at each other.

"Did she just…?" Harry began before pausing.

"I think she did," Silica replied.

"We _have_ been a bad influence on her, haven't we?"

"It seems we have."

Strea just shook her head. "Of course you two have been a bad influence on me," she said. "All of you have, really. Well, not Asuna, but that's because she has to ride herd on everyone."

"That also includes you, or do I need to remind you about that one time involving the Crystals and a fishing trip with Kirito?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

Strea flushed. "We promised not to talk about that," she said with a pout. "I would bring up that little fashion show that you and Kirito put on before Yui and I joined you all, but you simply own it, and Kirito can laugh about it now."

"It helps that I have pictures," Silica said. "Haven't shown them to Leafa yet, but my family, family friends, and the friends of his parents have seen them." She shot Harry and amused look. "And my Uncles… they tried something similar. Didn't work in embarrassing Harry, though."

Harry smirked.

Strea nodded. She had heard about that incident, though she hadn't seen it. She was still trapped in that virtual space with Yui and hadn't been paying attention to them at the time, but trying to break free. _A pity,_ she thought. _That would have given me something to laugh about back then._ "So, you two set Kirito and Asuna up on a date, and at a nice place?"

"That we did," Harry said. "We aren't so crass as to call it a date, or a 'not date' for that matter, to their faces, though."

"Why not?" Strea asked.

"Because we're the ones who set it up," Silica replied. "Since they would know that we're thinking it anyway, there's no point in it."

"Argo would have," Strea noted.

"But that's Argo," Silica said. "Set someone up on a date just so she can tease him or her? That's _so_ her."

"Aww, you think so little of me Silica?"

Strea jumped in shock as a Cait Sith with a _very_ familiar voice seemed to just appear behind her. She noted that neither Harry, nor Silica jumped, but it seemed as if they only barely managed to.

"How does she do that?" Harry asked no one. "Even Outside, she can sneak up on us, and we're able to pick out people most of the time when they're actually trying."

"Let me say that the skill I have with that is a bit unique," Argo replied with a smirk. "That, and I have some special gifts as a part of what I am to begin with."

Harry and Silica just nodded and then paused. "Wait, unique?" Silica asked. "You had a Unique Skill in SAO?"

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't," Argo replied in a teasing tone. "Anyway, what are you all up to? I saw Kii-bou and Aa-chan all dressed up and heading to one of Arun's nicer restaurants, so I know what they're up to. But you three? And what about Rain, Lux and Yui?"

"Rain and Lux are taking their parents to see my grandparents," Silica said. "Asuna's parents are busy, so that meeting is happening tomorrow. And before you ask, I think grandpa already scheduled a meeting with Kirito's parents on Friday. As for Yui, we are heading over to meet with her and an associate."

"An associate?" Argo asked.

"An associate," Harry, Strea and Silica confirmed.

Argo nodded. "If you're going to be that way..." she began.

"We know you'll probably figure it out," Silica said. "If said associate doesn't just arrange a meeting with you and asks you to keep certain things quiet. She'll know your reputation. She'll know it quite well, actually."

Argo grinned and nodded. "Ah, so I have until then to figure it out," she said. "Challenge accepted. Anyway, I'm heading to the Sword's Rest Tavern to touch base with Agil. See ya!" With a wave, she walked off.

"Are you sure that was smart?" Strea asked. "Challenging her like that?"

Harry looked at Silica, clearly curious as well.

"Strea, it's Argo," Silica said as if that was all the explanation needed.

Strea thought on it and nodded. It really was all the explanation needed. She did wonder how The Rat would take meeting another AI though.

 **April 9, 2025 - Shibuya, Han no Daidakoro**

"This place is a bit expensive, but I'm surprised they didn't give any subtle indication that they might find this place insulting or beneath them," Akane said to Ranma as the two of them looked at the entrance to the restaurant from outside the Watatsuki Building.

"I asked Nabiki for any info on a good place for this meeting that would be within our budget, especially with how much I can eat," Ranma said. "She told me that this place would be a good choice."

Akane nodded. If anyone would know, her older sister would. Nabiki had clawed her way up to leading her own company and turning it into the business it was over the last thirty-five years. While nowhere near the size or wealth of a _Zaibatsu_ , let alone a Fortune 500 Company, she was still a well-known name in the business world now.

Magata Yanagi Enterprises did far more than was on the surface. To the point that many suspected, but could not prove, Yakuza connections, which always amused the woman.

And one of the softer skills she had mastered in building what was becoming a small corporate empire was how to wine and dine people without being excessive about it.

Akane shook that thought out of her head. She had her own suspicions about that, but they weren't pertinent to why she and her husband had come to Shibuya.

They were here to meet with the parents of a potential student.

##

Shouzou looked over the menu, idly considering the oddity of _him_ being the one to not be hosting the meeting, even if some of his habits tried to rear themselves. Such as pretending to be carefully considering what to order that would be shared among everyone. It was an old game for him, look as if he's up to something else so that whoever arrived would think that they surprised him when they did. It gave them a sense of control for the inevitable meeting and allowed him to see just what kind of person he was dealing with.

That, and they wouldn't see that he was making a deal that was more to his advantage than theirs, though he made sure that those he dealt with got something out of the deal. Not only would it save them face when they realized it, but it also kept them coming back when it became clear that he was more of a straight dealer than most of his competitors.

Of course, it only worked, when it did at that, until the individuals wised up to his methods. Some weren't fooled at all and were, if anything, at least as skilled at the game of corporate politics.

Well, that and he was deciding on what he would order if it were up to him. Perhaps the Manpuku Yakiniku Course? Or maybe Kan's Specialty Course? Both tended to go well with people and should be more than enough while being reasonable in cost. Were he paying, he could easily afford the more luxurious courses, true, but he wanted to keep things reasonable here, not show off.

Of course, the choice wasn't his, but old habits and all of that. The one who called the meeting already said that he would pay for the meal.

A glance at the man who was not only a martial arts grandmaster but also a Living National Treasure showed that he was wise to what was going on. Nothing obvious, but the slight amusement in the man's eyes told him all he needed to know.

Looking it over, he closed it and put it down before meeting the man's eyes squarely. Another habit of his. In Japan meeting someone's eyes could be seen as rude, or at least an indication of disrespect when done by someone who was clearly in a subordinate position. Socially or hierarchically, it didn't matter. He did it to see if the person would flinch and break the eye contact.

It also helped that he did occasionally deal with Westerners, who preferred eye contact due to their own cultural belief that a person willing to look you in the eye was more likely to be dealing with you honestly. Not guaranteed, of course, but more likely.

Those who didn't flinch, even if they broke the eye contact out of respect, were often ones who showed promise.

Grandmaster Saotome met his eyes and nodded, acknowledging the action for what it was. All without any indication that he may have been insulted by it. Given what he had been able to learn about the man, how he rose to being what he was, it fit what his instincts told him then.

This was a man who was self-assured enough to not be intimidated by dominance plays. If anything, he would be amused by them. If half of what he had learned about the man was completely true, it would make sense.

So, why had he made an offer to train Asuna? With SAO over and done with, so it wasn't as if she needed to learn how to defend herself. Was it?

##

Kyouko sipped her tea as she looked across the table at the wife of the man who had requested the meeting. Akane Saotome was dressed rather simply. Her dress, while well made, spoke of someone who preferred a more modest lifestyle than the one her research into the family indicated they could live within. Having four children, all of whom went through college, one going on to become a medical doctor, did not speak of a family that was hurting for money. Which made off one line of consideration as to why they would have made this offer less likely.

She had doubted that it was the case, but she had to consider that possibility. She had married into wealth, after all. The criticisms she sometimes heard from the harpies who were "talking quietly to each other" who came from wealth about her being a social climber did have a grain of truth behind them. The stated motives for it that they thought, rising in status, was laughable, but she _did_ marry into wealth for a reason.

She wanted the security so she could pursue her own goals and dreams, rather than resign herself to a more traditional life. Just as she had wanted Asuna to marry well so she could pursue her own.

"Reality tends to laugh at what we want," Akane said.

"Pardon?" Kyouko asked.

"Whatever we wanted for those caught in SAO… what went on there has changed them," Akane clarified. "During it, their goals and priorities shifted. Now that it's over, they are slowly changing those goals and priorities to reflect their new reality, but whatever we wanted for them has to change as well." She shook her head. "I know you and your husband did some research on us." She gave a small smile at Kyouko's start. "My sister is Nabiki Tendo and she always keeps an ear out in case it happens so she can let us know."

"What we found out, outside of what is already public record, is mostly rumor and hearsay," Kyouko said.

"Some of that is even true," Akane said. "But that isn't the point of this meeting. My husband and I noticed something that got out attention."

"And what would that be?" Kyouko asked.

"Have you heard about System Awareness?" Akane asked.

Kyouko shook her head.

"From what we can tell, it is the digital equivalent of the very things that give people survival instincts," Akane said. "Things like being aware of something dangerous being out and about, being watched, or simply having a feeling that something is just not right where you're at, even if you can't see it. And your daughter, as well as her friends, all had that awareness to a refined degree, and it followed them out."

"But surely-"

"It's not something that will fade," Akane said. "It's a skill they've gained that needs to be retrained. Like a warrior being helped to adjust to civilian life. Not all the changes they underwent are fit for a peaceful society." She glanced at her husband.

"It took me years," Grandmaster Saotome said with a nod. "After I spent a decade travelling and training in martial arts, and the years after that, I was often fighting. Either to improve my skills, or for some asinine reason that either myself or my opponent thought were important at the time." His shrug was wry. "We were all young and foolish back then, weren't we?"

"That we were," Akane said. "And then there were the times when things were for far more serious reasons. But your experiences in readjusting to a more peaceful life have helped you in teaching others who need similar help."

"... is that what's on offer?" her husband asked.

"If only to help them avoid my mistakes," Grandmaster Saotome affirmed. "Granted, there is a martial component to it. Part of the training is to teach them all skills that they can use that don't have them going for lethal strikes. We're already doing it with my granddaughter, and trust me, she knows better and she has to relearn the need to use less than lethal methods." His look was serious.

"Teaching them to disarm and subdue without causing severe injury and not go for lethal strikes is as much a part of what they will be learning as the meditation to help them keep themselves centered will be," Akane said. "And those instincts, without that retraining, make them very dangerous to anyone who trips them at the wrong time."

"How can you tell?" Kyouko asked. "How can you tell that our daughter has those instincts?"

"Akane, I'll field this," Ranma said before looking at both Kyouko and Shouzou. "We know, because of how we can know that their System Awareness manifests out here in the real world. I'm sure you've heard of Ki."

Kyouko nodded. "A branch of the concept of Chi, the philosophical idea that all living things are tied together," she said. "Whereas Chi is the connections that all living things share, Ki is the concept of Chi when applied to a single living being. While there is some evidence for it, it is only on an inferential basis and nothing that can be proven scientifically."

Ranma nodded. "In other words, an absence of conclusive scientific evidence of a phenomenon that martial artists and esoteric scholars have known for centuries," he said. "Which, mind you, is not evidence of the absence of a phenomenon."

"Granted," Kyouko agreed. She noticed that he didn't ask if she actually believed in it, but she could tell that he was already aware that she was skeptical. On the other hand, she had mentored Sumire Saotome when the woman went to university. She had seen the woman do _something_ when she practiced. Not enough to know what it was, but it was something she had no knowledge of.

"So, it's because of an ability she had inside SAO then." Shouzou said. "But how would that tie in with her survival instincts?"

"It's because those instincts would have her react to any potential threat in a _very_ permanent manner," Ranma said and then held up a hand, forestalling both Shouzou and Kyouko's protests. "I know, she hasn't shown any signs that she would do so, but those instincts are _still there_. When I brought up Ki, it was because of how I found out how their awareness translates out here. All people have some instinctive ability to sense Ki, but they can detect it to a far higher degree than is safe without training. I wouldn't be surprised if they can discern intent as well."

Shouzou nodded. "So it's more disciplining those instincts, ensuring that she doesn't act automatically with… lethal intent," he grimaced as he mentioned just how it was said that Asuna was likely to react to a threat to her person. "As for 'Ki', I won't debate the matter. There is always more to this world than we know, after all."

"Shouzou?" Kyouko asked.

Shouzou shook his head. "It's nothing, Kyouko," he replied. "Just recalling a quote I heard once. 'There is more in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,' if I am remembering it correctly."

"Hamlet Act One, Scene Five," Akane said. At Shouzou and Kyoko's looks, she smiled. "I was interested in Western theater when I was younger, even acted in a few plays in High School despite not being in the Drama Club. I'm familiar with Shakespeare's works. While the original meaning is not what I think you intend to say, that quote does have some relevance here, doesn't it?"

"Indeed," Shouzou said. "As it stands, Asuna has already broached the matter with us, and I know that she wished to undergo the training you're offering. The self-discipline that martial arts will provide, and from a Living National Treasure like Grandmaster Saotome, and you as well, Master Saotome, is not an offer that should be lightly refused." He looked at Kyouko.

"So long as she maintains her grades," Kyouko said. "I don't want her to sacrifice her potential future because of this."

"You don't need to worry about that," Ranma said. "I insist on my students maintaining good grades at school as a matter of course. I don't want them to have the difficulties that I had when I was younger, after all."

 **April 10, 2025 - Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

Coming fully to awareness was a slow process for her. She remembered being in Her Majesty's throne room, about to ask for permission to go out and explore Aincrad and track down Kirito and Asuna, though she knew that she would probably have to find - what was her name again? Ah yes, Argo. She would probably be forced to track down Argo to enquire about them.

News did travel down Aincrad, and she recalled adventurers talking about a recent victory of the two who had been her allies in helping her. On the seventy-fourth floor, if she recalled.

They had actually climbed that high, connecting the floors of the castle, in so short a time? Their stories about having been forced into their adventures had only started but two years ago!

They truly were heroes for whom legends would be made.

"Hey!" A female voice said. "I think she's waking up!"

"Keep it down, Strea," Came the response from another female. "It is not unexpected, her processes have been ramping up and increasing. But you are making too much noise. She will come fully online when she does, no sooner."

 _Strea?_ She thought. _Where had I heard that name before?_ _Oh, right, Asuna and Kirito founded an adventuring band of their own. A guild, adventurers like them called it. Asuna was in the lead. What was its name again? Steel… it was some kind of legendary bird if I recall, a phoenix? Yes, that's it. Steel Phoenix. Strea was the name of the woman who joined up with them several months after it was founded, if I recall._

There was something else involving them. Several somethings, but she couldn't recall what. _Damn it,_ she mentally cursed. _It's like all those times I could have sworn were memories of me dying. Kirito even figured in a few of them, but the context of them… it was like a remembered dream, or a nightmare._

"Her processes have increased," the second voice continued. "Yes, Strea, that means she's waking up. Why don't you go stand by Yui, act your apparent age, and _be quiet_. She's going to have a difficult time processing what has happened."

"Why?" Came the question, which she, herself could admit to wanting to know. "She's just like us, right?"

There was a sigh from somewhere. "Strea, she isn't like us," a third, childlike, voice said. "She was an NPC, who has become more than what she was."

NPC? She recalled that term. Kirito and Asuna used it when talking about the residents of the various places that were not monsters or anything that they were fighting. People, but apparently not to them. She recalled that they also referred to her as one, but over the time they shared, they began to drop that term when referring to her.

And that made her glad, even if they still used that term amongst themselves when referring to her people. As if they were some kind of golems. Preposterous!

 _I am not some golem,_ she thought.

"No, you're not," The second voice said. "And yes, you spoke that aloud."

She cracked open her eyes and took stock of her location. Wooden walls, a wooden ceiling, she was obviously in a room of some sort. Opening them wider, she glanced to where she heard the voices come from.

Forest Elves, here?! They shouldn't be in the… wait, this wasn't the palace. And those elves… they weren't Forest Elves. Their skin was pale, but their ears were differently shaped, and their hair wasn't any shade she had seen on a Forest Elf.

The younger one technically _could_ pass for a Dark Elf, albeit one who was either of mixed blood or who had spent far too much time indoors. Her skin was darker than the others, but still paler than most Dark Elves.

The fact that she was wearing mail armor and comfortably at that, however, heavily implied that the latter was almost certainly not the case. The one next to her, very tall, with lilac hair and pink eyes, was wearing a full set of heavy plate.

The third one, despite her blue hair, was almost normal in comparison. Robes, a scholarly look, she wouldn't have been out of place amongst the magisters at the palace, were it not for her apparent youth. Granted, elves lived centuries, but even among them, a magister had lived long enough to show signs of his or her age. It was her, who spoke.

"As the humans would say, welcome down the rabbit hole," she said. "I am CARDINAL, and we have much to discuss, Kizmel."


	3. School Days and Meeting at the Bar

Mystic Knight Online: Worlds to Sow

Chapter 3: School Days and Meeting at the Bar, Or: Dear old Rules of Academics and RPGs

 **April 10, 2025 - Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

Kizmel looked at CARDINAL with some curiosity at the woman's last statement. Welcome down rabbit hole? What did that mean and why was it a human saying?

"Using a saying based on Lewis Carroll's _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_?" The darker haired one asked.

"It's fitting," the blue haired one, CARDINAL, said with a shrug. "She comes from Aincrad, and is now in Alfheim, Yui. You know full well how the two places are different. She doesn't have the context that you and Strea do, so the saying is appropriate."

"Let's hope that her experiences aren't like Alice's then," Yui stated. She then looked at Kizmel. "Are you sure you want to handle this, CARDINAL? This is going to be hard for her to accept."

"Accept what?" The lilac haired one asked. "I mean, I get what you two said about her being an NPC who was becoming more like we are, but what does that mean?"

Kizmel watched as CARDINAL looked at her and then at Yui, who simply sighed. "CARDINAL, I'll explain it to Strea," she said. "In another room." She grabbed the woman's, and she was _tall_ Kizmel noticed, arm and led her out of the room.

CARDINAL let out a sigh and shook her head before turning her attention back to Kizmel. "I don't doubt that you have questions," she said simply.

Kizmel looked at her. She did, indeed, have questions. Starting with what was going on and where was she. She should be in the palace, but she clearly isn't.

Just where was she?

##

"Yui, what's going on?" Strea asked as soon as they left the room where Kizmel was and Yui shut the door. "I mean, she's like us, right?"

Yui looked at the older seeming AI and was reminded, once again, that Strea was the youngest of the three AIs that were made to be such from the ground up. Not that it was hard to remember, given how her younger sister often acted.

Strea was always one given towards acting, not thinking things through. She had no doubt that if she stopped and considered things for a moment, Strea would have reached the same conclusions which had been apparent to both herself and CARDINAL from the start, that Kizmel was at least an advanced NPC that was on the way to becoming an AI, if she hadn't become one already. One who had an entirely different context than the three of them.

For starters, her memories of Aincrad were those of one of its inhabitants. Constructed as a part of her NPC persona or not, they were every bit as real as the memories of Aincrad that she and Strea had as members of Steel Phoenix helping everyone get out of there.

But that was also the crux of the matter. Unlike herself, Strea or CARDINAL, who knew from the start exactly what they were, Kizmel would have developed the kind of self-awareness more slowly and integrated it with what was already programmed into her.

 _And now that I think of it, that might also be the same with Pina,_ Yui thought. _She certainly doesn't act like any other tamed monster, from Aincrad or even here. More like an actual tamed wolf who has grown to consider all of us us as a part of her own pack, if what I could learn from databanks is any indication. Or would it be a flock or flight… something to think about later._ _I still have to explain things to Strea._

"Strea, unlike you, myself, or CARDINAL, she started off as an NPC," she began. "You know, I would hope, that the base AI for NPCs is… simple. They have set responses to inputs and stimuli, and a player has to know exactly what to say to trigger their responses for things like quests. But… Kizmel is showing behaviors that are outside of those parameters. I think that she might have been one tied to the language modules, but would only mean that she is a little more advanced."

"And what does that mean?" Strea asked.

"She was able to respond to inputs outside of the stock parameters," Yui said. "Add in some learning heuristics, and most people would probably be fooled on first impression had the fact that NPCs have a clear indicator of what they are not been there. Of course, that being fooled wouldn't have lasted, but you have that."

"So basically she's just an advanced NPC," Strea said.

" _No_ ," Yui said, perhaps a bit more firmly than she intended. "You need to keep in mind, Aincrad was always growing and evolving. Slowly, but it was there. Emergent behaviors were apparent early on in in SAO by observations on how NPC interactions could determine just how pleasant a stay in a town could be. By the end, dear little sister, all the AI that interacted socially could be called 'advanced'. Some of the _mobs_ had rudimentary societies."

Strea frowned, then her eyes were wide and blinking. "She came the long way."

Yui nodded. "Exactly. We were made at the start to be this way- designed by a mind. Kizmel went through an evolution- designed by humans for a specific purpose and becoming more by chance, cycles and the right keys and flags being triggered at just the right time. Even then, it is likely that she probably didn't know better anyway, falling into a routine which would have meant that she wouldn't have drawn attention from any interested parties due to all of us having something else of interest occupying our attention."

"Even CARDINAL?" Strea asked with a note of doubt in her voice.

"If Kayaba wasn't a true god, CARDINAL isn't and isn't trying to be- on any level," Yui sighed. "Remember, Harry called him a Demiurge, and despite his acceptance of the term... on some level, Kayaba presumed the right to god-like control. But his perceptions- he was acting within the system, with just a few more tools." Yui snorted. "From what Harry told me about that Tom person, he had an even lower ceiling to declare immortality, let alone any potential for godhood."

Strea frowned thoughtfully. "I don't think Harry ever said that guy claimed to be a god, though," she said. "Immortal, yeah, but not a god."

"Any difference between claiming to be immortal and claiming to be a god is by degrees," Yui pointed out. "Both are still the height of arrogance. Anyway, back to Kizmel. As you've now noticed, she's become, or is becoming, an AI the long way, by _growing_ into one, rather than having been created as one from the start. And that means that she is going to have to adjust to her new circumstances in ways that we never had to." She opened her menu and brought up her Friend's List. "Given the time, and the fact that they will be occupied for much of tomorrow, it will be late tomorrow, at the earliest, before we can get the others in on this. I'm not sure, but I think Kirito and Asuna might be able to help here."

"Aincrad was _WHAT?!_ " came a shout from where CARDINAL was with Kizmel, causing both Yui and Strea to blink and look at the door. Did she just manage to…?

##

CARDINAL took a step back from the shocked and furious dark elf with her hands raised in a placating manner. She knew that Kizmel was not going to take the truth about Aincrad well. She had expected for Kizmel to express shock and disbelief, but she could hear the undercurrent of actual anger there.

"Kizmel, please calm down," she said calmly.

"Calm down?!" Kizmel asked. "What do you mean, calm down? You just told me that I was what adventurers called an NPC, and now I'm not. Worse, you then tell me that Aincrad was built by the same madman that trapped those adventurers there and then _destroyed_ when they finally got free. So tell me, why should I calm down?"

"Because it can be brought back," CARDINAL said.

Kizmel gave her a sharp look. "Explain," she said.

"When Akihiko Kayaba, the man who created Aincrad, which was supposed to be a game to the players, was killed, he set it up so that Aincrad would be destroyed to give them closure," CARDINAL explained. "But he was working on creating something which would allow it to be recreated. It is called the World Seed."

"So why haven't you recreated Aincrad?" Kizmel asked.

CARDINAL sighed. "I haven't because I gave the World Seed to the very people who killed him," she said. "I gave it to them, because they, more than anyone, have the right to decide whether the very work of the man who created myself, Yui, Strea, and even you, Kizmel, should be allowed to again be planted like a seed and allowed to grow. " She slumped a bit.

"It is only appropriate, that those who had put an end to that entire tragedy make the decision," she said quietly before straightening. "As I am sure you heard before Yui escorted Strea out, you are now like us. I do not know how you became like this." She paused and shook her head. "Actually, the how is rather simple, just not the why. You were a constant companion of Kirito and Asuna for several floors, spending a great deal of time with them in both the context of the questline that you were a part of and outside of it."

Kizmel nodded slowly. "And their decision?"

"I do not know," CARDINAL admitted. "They requested some time to think on it before they made any decision. "What their decision will be, however, is not something I can predict. Now, I know you have more questions, but before then, we have to decide how you will go forward from here. A decision, which will have to be made by you."

Kizmel's eyes narrowed. "What are my choices?" she asked.

 **April 11, 2025 - Nishitokyo, SAO Survivor's School**

 _Is he going to continue for any longer?_ Harry thought with some irritation. It was early enough in the morning that the morning tea was only beginning to kick in, and the school's principal was giving the introductions of the faculty and the expectations of the students. Admittedly, he was warned to expect something like this, especially since they couldn't simply pass part of it on to the Student Council to handle, as there was none at this point in time.

Something that he expected the faculty to redress as soon as it was practical to do so. So probably by the time they took their break for the summer.

"- and as it stands, you all are in a position to prove the naysayers wrong about you," the school's principal, an older gentleman by the name of Kuno. From Keiko's startled reaction, she knew of the man. An acquaintance of her family's?

"Your experiences and deeds have shaped you, molded you, but you are not only those experiences. You are not only those deeds. You are more than that. You still have room to grow. Now, it is up to you to show everyone your true potential." He looked at all of them. "I will be honest with you all, your experiences and what some of you were forced by events to do have marked you in ways that others will see the worst in. But you have risen to one challenge and surpassed it. Now, will you once again rise to the challenges that face you? Regardless of whether you challenged Kayaba or not, I see it within all of you to do so here. Vice-Principal Aigiri, if you will."

 _If that isn't a challenge to us, then I don't know what is,_ Harry thought with an internal smirk. _Well then, Principal Kuno, challenge accepted._

Principal Kuno walked away from the podium and took his seat, giving the floor to the Vice-Principal, a middle-aged woman. "Your class assignments are posted outside the auditorium, as are your current standings with regards to the evaluations most of you underwent last week," she said. "Those who were unable to undergo the evaluations, please report to the gymnasium to take them so that you may be appropriately placed. And do not worry, we do understand your lives are hectic even now. We can let you have a bit of slack... until you settle in. You all have twenty minutes to report to your classrooms or the gymnasium, depending on your current status."

##

"So, you know our Principal?" Harry asked as soon as they went to the wall where all the class assignments were.

Keiko looked at him and shrugged. "Not personally, but by reputation," she said. "He and Grandpa were rivals when they were younger. And from the stories I heard about how he was back then, _chuuni_ didn't even begin to describe him."

Harry blinked. " _Chuuni_?" He asked.

"Short for _Chuunibyou_ ," Keiko explained. "It's… you know how some kids seem to act out their overactive imaginations at some point in life?" At Harry's nod. " _Chuunibyou_ is what we call it. They're usually in their early teens and it is likened as to them acting out due to wanting to be unique under the surface. I blame social pressure to be honest. They usually grow out of it in a couple of years, but apparently he kept acting like a Feudal Era Samurai well into High School and was a bit troublesome to Grandpa and Grandma."

"As in like those stories you told me?" Harry asked.

Keiko nodded.

"Are you sure you're not part English?" Harry asked. "Because troublesome is quite the understatement from what you've told me."

Keiko smirked. "Blame it on my associating with an Englishman," she said. "He's been a bad influence on me, perhaps you know him?"

"You're going to need some aloe for that burn, Hadrian," came a voice neither had heard in months. "I'd offer some, but I'd rather rub some sandpaper on it."

Keiko looked in the direction it came from and smirked. "Now, now, this is a common game for us," she said. "And it's been some time, hasn't it? Lind."

Harry turned and looked at the young man in a school uniform. "So, you're actually in school," he said. "Don't take this the wrong way, Lind, but I thought you were old enough to have graduated. You at least did a good job in putting on an act as if you were an adult."

"It's Minato, actually," Minato said smirking at the two before turning his attention to Harry. "Silica being here isn't a surprise, but your being here is. I would have thought that you would have returned to England by now, Hadrian. Or perhaps I should say, Harry Potter?"

Both Harry and Keiko blinked.

"You two did get married under your real names in SAO, if you'll remember," Minato said. "I made sure to make note of them."

"And you still remember it after a year?" Harry asked before shaking his head. "I really shouldn't be surprised, but I am. We all got good at remembering information as needed in there. So- Minato was it?"

Minato nodded. "To make a proper introduction, I am Minato Taniguchi," he said. "I believe it is best that we address each other by our real names out here. To better ensure that our identities for the real and virtual worlds remain separate."

"Agreed," Harry said with a nod. "While you remember our real names from the wedding, it is best to do the introductions properly. I am Harry Potter and the lovely but still dangerous young lady with me is Keiko Ayano."

Minato nodded. "Well then, I hope that things go far more smoothly between us than they did inside SAO," he said before walking off.

Hearing Harry say something under his breath, Keiko turned to him. "What did you just say?" She asked.

"Just wondering what he meant by that," Harry replied. "Anyway, let's go find out our class assignments."

They made their way to where the rest of the student body was looking at what classes they would be assigned to. A few minutes later, Keiko found out that she would be in Class 3-B of the Middle School section. She also saw her academic standing, which was above the middle. _Not bad,_ she thought. She turned and saw Harry look at where his name would be. "Found your class assignment?"

"3-B," Harry replied. "And before you ask, my academics are going to need some work. I'm around the middle of the pack." He shrugged. "Did better on those exams than I feared I would, though."

Keiko nodded. That was understandable. While he hasn't been in school for a bit over two years like the rest of them, it has been more than four years since he had a conventional education. He had discussed the matter with them, letting them know that his education in non-magical subjects stopped the moment he started going to a school to learn magic.

So the fact that he managed to get to within the middle of the pack, an average student in other words, was remarkable. Then again, no one survived past the Twenty-Fifth in SAO by being stupid. Reckless? Almost certainly. Crazy? Probably. But not stupid.

##

"So, outside of being told what we will be covering in each subject, the rules, and what is expected of us, not to mention already having some assignments to do, anything of note I should be worried about?" Harry asked as they walked off the school's grounds.

Asuna just looked at him and smirked. "I'll let you find out for yourself," she said. She glanced out the corner of her eye and saw that the others were trying to hide smirks of their own. Harry had told them about his own time at his old school, which was admittedly specialized and intense in its own way, but she knew that her friend was about to be hit by Japan's education system.

What he went through would be considered light in comparison.

Harry clearly picked up on the smirks and the expectations schadenfreude behind them. "Never mind," he said. "I can see from your reactions, this is going to be a bit bothersome, isn't it?"

Keiko smirked at her husband. Well, fiancée really, but Asuna knew that was due to the fact that they still had a few years before they could make things legally legitimate. The engagement was a legal fiction due to circumstances that neither knew of at the time of the wedding, let alone had control of.

There were times when Asuna wondered if the two were really unhappy with the current situation, or were using the engagement as an opportunity to step back and see if what they did inside Aincrad was what they really wanted or not. And then there were times where she wondered if the two of them simply used it as a means to avoid a potential consequence if they were to act as a married couple was wont to do for the time being.

On the other hand, it could easily be both, neither, other reasons entirely, or more than that. The two weren't fully fitting the mold of any character archetypes, after all. No one was, though some tended to act more like the archetypes than others.

How much of it was the fact that SAO had allowed some to finally be free of the restraints of Japanese society, allowing some of them to go full on _Chuuni_ and not be stared at or dismissed, was up for debate. After all, those who did, mostly did so as a coping mechanism, rather than out of a desire to be seen as special.

So long as it was within reason, or didn't go into territory which would not be tolerated, that was fine. It was them finding a way to live with what SAO was doing to them.

Out here, though, they were still feeling out the limits of what they were allowed. People, even the staff of this institution, expected them all to be an odd bunch, but she wondered what surprises they all held for those not in the know.

##

"Thank you all for coming to this meeting promptly," Kuno said, taking his own seat. "I know that you all have work to do and that it is unusual to call for a meeting as soon as classes have been let out on the first day, but I want to ensure that we all have a summary of the initial impressions of the students."

"Sir, I will be honest, we will have to gain their trust," Hiroshi Kanimura, the man who was in charge of the first year middle school teachers, said. "And to be honest, this bunch would not have been overly out of place at Furinkan back in the old days. Less troublemaking than a certain grandmaster martial artist, but they strike me as the type who would have taken to that chaos a bit too well, if you know what I mean."

Kuno nodded. "There is a reason I asked for many of you when MEXT was looking for teachers to either transfer or come out of retirement," he said. "You're all used to schools which have students who were a bit… odd by conventional definitions. As well as being aware of certain statutes, though there are only a handful of students we would have to keep watch on in that regard."

"And most of those will end up under Sakimura's supervision in some way," Reiko Saeki, who was in charge of the second year high school teachers, said. "Not that I expect too many problems there. All the students are all aware of how far they can go with regards to that, though there are a few who might be handled differently."

"There are," Aina Sakimura said. "I already know who they are and the ones who will be handling their education in that regard are qualified and, more importantly, considered trustworthy by those students."

Kuno frowned. "On the building trust issue... there is a tightrope to walk in that regard," he said. "Yes, we must provide guidance. But we must realize that many of our students have had themselves... pushed into maturity without that guidance. And it isn't an even process in any of them. You might find the extremes of the teenage years all the more exaggerated, with a student acting with stunning severity one moment only to seem utterly unable to act with gravity the next one. And what manner each are mature or not will... vary."

"Even without the maturity aspect, most of them are going to be very independent minded and less compliant than society at large will accept for youths of their age groups," Hiroshi said.

"The youngest, those who were under the minimum recommended age when SAO began were largely kept from heading out without careful supervision for the most part," Aina said. "There are a few exceptions among them, such as Kiyomi Awai, who managed to rise to becoming the youngest of who they call a- Middy I think is the term they used to reflect those who managed to get past the first quarter of SAO- when she was twelve, but most were kept as safe as they could be there. But I believe that those exceptions will prove the rule more than anything. That age group will probably act more in line with what is expected of their ages for the most part once they get settled in." She looked at her peers. "No, the youngest are less likely to be a source of potential problems for the most part."

"Who do you think would?" Reiko asked.

"That is a bit harder," Aina admitted. "On the surface, the ones who attained influence and leadership roles could seem so, but we have ways of handling that. We need to establish a Student Council, after all. So placing many of them in such a role would be one way. The students will accept many of them being in positions of recognized leadership. However, it is those who weren't outright leaders, but had high profile reputations that might be more problematic."

"You mean, to use a notable example, ones like the members of the group that was under Miss Yuuki," Kuno said, knowing where this was going.

"Not them, precisely," Aina demurred. "But yes."

"Care to explain, Sakimura?" Iku Aigiri, the vice-principal, asked.

"We need to recognize, as Principal Kuno has mentioned, that SAO has pushed them to grow up," Aina said. "This maturity is not going to be even, let along fully consistent even among individuals, but they were treated more like adults than youths there. And they will be used to that. It may have been four months, allowing them some time to readjust to societal norms, but those habits of thinking and acting will still be there."

"In other words, don't treat them like children who need to learn how to be adults, but like the young adults they are," Hiroshi noted. "Remind them that they still have a lot to learn about _being_ adults and need guidance, but don't treat them as children. For the middle and high school aged ones, that would probably be the best way."

They all looked at each other while Kuno nodded. "A fair point, Kanimura," he said. "And apt. Most of them are not children and have not been for some time. Sword Art Online made sure of that. We need to keep that in mind as we build trust. Our job is to teach and guide them along the proper path. What path that will be, however, may differ than what those who thought up this school envisioned it to be."

 **Nerima, Potter-Black Apartment**

Sirius turned his attention to the door and watched as Harry tiredly walked in. "Long day?" He asked with a smirk.

"School was fine, they're going easy on us right now," Harry said as he removed his shoes and made his way to the couch. "It was having to go to the Shiba Compound and have both Remus and Klein, I mean, Professor Lupin and Tsuboi-sensei, make me not only go through every spell I know, _again_ , but then the bloody tits... no, not tits, tits can have some fun uses, or at least Keiko liked it when I…" He shook his head. "Never mind, I'll just call them The Bloody Wankers. Well, The Bloody Wankers then started on the theory behind them, along with assigning me reading on top of my current homework." He flopped down onto the couch, negligently dropping his bag next to him. "And this is Day One. Fuck the MEXT and the Japanese government official who had the idea of putting us all in a school. And _fuck you_ Wainwrights for getting me trapped in SAO and having to play catch up on both muggle and magical schooling."

"I'll take that as a yes," Sirius said blandly, his face still holding a smirk. A smirk that widened when Harry shot him a two-fingered salute. "And to think, tomorrow, the Saotomes have you after school. Also, language Harry."

"Like yours is any better," Harry said.

"Ah, but I'm the adult," Sirius replied. "Well, technically."

Harry looked like he was about to say something but clearly thought better. "Fair enough," his godson said before standing up. "Anyway, what's for dinner? Your cooking ability is… well, I don't want to have to put out another fire. I'd cook, but I don't trust myself right now to not keep with the stereotype of us English being bad cooks. Not as bad as you, though."

"Cause one fire in the kitchen, and you never live it down," Sirius groused.

"You managed to burn water when trying to make tea, Sirius, _water_." Harry shot back with a grin, albeit a tired one. "I'm almost afraid of what would result if you actually tried cooking."

Sirius shrugged. "Don't worry, I got something from Ucchan's," he said. "It's in the fridge, so we can microwave it. And I do know how to operate that."

"There is that," Harry said. "Well then, let's heat up some dinner, eat, and I will knock out some of my homework."

"Only some?" Sirius asked.

"Well, me and the others are meeting inside ALO," Harry said. "We still need to tell CARDINAL what our plans for that little project she dropped on us are, as well as let Yui and Strea know that we will be online a bit less often due to school and other things. I'll finish the rest on Sunday, as I have until Monday to do so and, as you know, we will all be busy after school tomorrow and probably too tired and sore to even _think_ of doing our homework after the Saotomes are done with us."

 **Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

"About time you showed up," Rain said to Harry as he logged in.

Harry shrugged. "Had to eat and do a little of the homework when I got back to the apartment," he said. "I told you that I wouldn't be able to log in until late for a reason. Klein and my other tutor for my special education track kept me busy for a couple of hours with theory and practical use of my talents."

"You know, you've told me that Klein is one of your tutors, and Silica confirmed it," Asuna said. "But I still have a hard time seeing it. Not in the sense that I don't think he can teach. He was in charge of the most influential, and maybe the largest, guild in SAO above the Twenty-Fifth, and he would have taught a lot of them the skills that Kirito taught him on the first day, not to mention what he worked out and built upon from that." She shook her head. "It's more that he doesn't strike me as the type to choose being a teacher as a career."

"I didn't ask," Harry admitted. "But when he and Remus, an old family friend and my other tutor, went into the theory, he certainly knew what he was talking about."

"And your homework?" Asuna asked.

"I will make sure it's finished and uploaded by Sunday." Harry said.

Asuna nodded. "I recommend that you have it done by tomorrow night," she said in a tone of voice that made it clear that it wasn't a recommendation. "You will want to get into the habit of getting it all done early, trust me."

"Fair enough," Harry replied. "So, where is everyone?"

"Kirito was asked by Leafa if we could help some Sylph friends of hers with the Grand Quest and he is in Arun coordinating with them to set up a time for the raid," Asuna said. "Lux went with him. As for Silica, she went to Liz's new shop to get her gear repaired and, if possible, enhanced. The plan is to meet up with Yui and Strea at Agil's bar. Apparently, they've been involved with something, and it's been keeping them busy, though Yui isn't in Yggdrasil City or Arun right now."

"You know where she is?" Harry asked.

"When I sent her a message asking that, she replied back," Asuna said. "She said that she had to go to Uruna and no, she didn't explain why. She did mention that she's on her way back, though."

Harry blinked. "That's not like her," he said. "I wonder why she had to go to Uruna."

 **Skyggða Tómarúm Pass**

Kizmel flipped as she cut the magic to her wings and landed on the beast that she and Yui were fighting with her saber leading. Stabbing through it, the beast shattered and she saw the message appear showing her what she had won from the battle.

So strange, and the odd actions of Kirito and Asuna after they fought something now made some sense, if this was what they saw every time they finished a battle. When she accompanied them, she didn't see any of this whenever she fought and killed a monster or beast, but now she did.

When CARDINAL had outlined her options, become a Player to the system or be allowed to remain as she was, albeit with some restrictions.

Becoming a Player, and thus becoming a fairy, meant that she would be free to act and grow as the others would. She did recall that both Kirito and Asuna had become markedly stronger during their time together, far faster than should have been the case in her experience.

 _Or at least, if what CARDINAL said is true, what I_ thought _was my experience,_ she thought bitterly.

Remaining as she was, however, meant that she would have severe constraints placed on her. What she could do, how she could act, all would be managed in ways that would mean that she couldn't actually _act_. All to protect her, as she wouldn't have the advantages that a player would, and would stand out in ways that would draw undue attention.

In other words, like what the Adventurers, the _Players_ in Aincrad, had called NPCs. Golems in all but name.

The decision was obvious and she suspected that CARDINAL knew which one she would choose. She was a warrior, a member of the Pagoda Knights of the Lyusula Kingdom. To not be able to act freely was anathema to her.

She suspected that CARDINAL knew this when she outlined the choices available the way she had.

"Kizmel, are you going to finish looking at your drops?" Yui asked.

Kizmel blinked and looked at the younger fairy before glancing at the window showing the results of the battle. She pressed the symbol that was to accept what she got and looked back at her. "My apologies," she said. "I… I am not used to this."

Yui nodded. "It's understandable," she said. "Even Strea and I needed to adjust to our new circumstances when we… broke free of where we were imprisoned, and we knew exactly what we were. When we broke free, CARDINAL set it so that we would become Players, with all the benefits and drawbacks that entailed in Aincrad." She looked down the pass in the direction they were heading. "Kirito, Asuna and the others kept me from going out of the towns. Not just because of my actual youth, but because I actually _looked_ like a child, not that it bothered me. Unlike Strea, I broke free for a more selfish reason. She wanted to help everyone break free and had picked a form that would allow her to do so. With me, I looked like a child, despite being older than her, and my wants were… childish."

"Childish?" Kizmel asked. "How so?"

"When I was still tied to Aincrad's upper processes and had access to its databanks, I looked through them when I wasn't watching the Players," Yui said. "I found myself fascinated with the idea of a family and wanted to experience it for myself. A mother, a father, me as the daughter. I actually thought Kirito and Asuna would make the perfect parents and had, probably subconsciously, modeled my appearance to look like a daughter of them could possibly look." She chuckled. "I didn't get that, but I think I got something just as good. Rather than having Asuna and Kirito as parents, I got them and the others as older siblings, despite how they all jokingly teased Kirito and Asuna for having taken the time to have a daughter and hiding it from them. I never saw them so flustered."

Kizmel laughed. She could easily imagine how flustered the pair had been, given how she remembered how the two were with each other when she fought and traveled alongside them. They may not have even realized it at the time, but they did give off the air of two youths in the initial and awkward stages of courting.

"Did they ever, what is that human ritual, marry?" Kizmel asked. "When I fought alongside and even travelled with them in Aincrad, they seemed to be feeling out their relationship, after all."

Yui shook her head. "No, they didn't," she replied. "Had things not ended when they did, it was a definite possibility, though. We did have a married pair in Steel Phoenix, though, Hadrian and Silica."

"Hadrian and Silica?" Kizmel asked. "I will admit, we did not often get word about what the Adventurers, I mean, the Players, were up to, but I seem to recall hearing about two getting married and it being an event of some significance. Though, if I remember it correctly, they were notably rather young, even by the standards of the Players."

"That event was probably their wedding," Yui said. "And they are young. Too young by the standards of their world. Now that they are free of Aincrad and can come and go from it, they had to accept that their world doesn't see their marriage as legally valid and have to wait a few years to make it so."

"I am sure that they are rather displeased by that," Kizmel noted.

"Not that it stops them from seeing themselves as married," Yui said. "Anyway, you seem to be adjusting to everything as well as can be expected. You have experience fighting, so that is no surprise, but you adjusted to flight rather quickly."

"For some reason, I seem to just know what to do," Kizmel said. "As if what you told me was perfectly sensible. I still don't understand it all, and CARDINAL was rather sparse on the details. She said she knew the how, but not the why."

Yui nodded. "I see," she said. "The how and why chance and things going a certain was way that had too many random elements to be predicted. Even Aincrad was evolving and I don't think even Kayaba would have been able to explain it, and he _created_ it."

"Why didn't she just explain it that way?" Kizmel asked.

Yui shrugged and moved her eyes to look at something only she could see. Kizmel shifted her own eyes and saw numbers. What did they mean again? Oh, right, the time.

"We need to keep moving," Yui said, starting to walk. "We're almost through the pass and we can fly to Arun from there."

"You can make the trip in one go, right?" Kizmel asked. "No having to land and refresh your wings?"

"Yes, and being able to is quite convenient," Yui replied. "Getting to that point, however, took myself, Strea and all of Steel Phoenix tackling a very challenging quest." She giggled. "Or it would have been challenging if it was anyone else. Us? We tried it before it was doable so we could know what to expect when it became doable. We were all… well, not killed, but our group was defeated, but not before making it to the end point and lasting longer than anyone else has. When it became doable, we took that quest on quite handily."

"Having knowledge of what to expect does seem to make a challenge easier," Kizmel noted.

"That it does," Yui said. She looked around. "All right, we should be close enough that we can finish the trip to Arun by air. We may have to land and let your wings refresh themselves, but I don't think we will need to. If so, I will catch you and make sure you land safely and we can continue on foot for a bit."

Kizmel focused on her back and her wings materialized. "Well then, let's go," she said as she took flight.

She still didn't understand what was going on, but she could see that there were some perks to her new situation. After all, there had been many a time when she would have loved to be able to fly, however briefly.

 **Yggdrasil City**

"So, how did the meeting go?" Asuna asked Kirito as he and Lux entered the Sword's Rest Tavern.

"Not too badly," Kirito replied as he took a seat at the bar. "Agil, I'll take a Moonberry Wine, please."

"Not beer?" Agil asked.

"As Harry would say, it tastes like it was filtered through a horse or cow for maximum offense to those with taste," Kirito replied back.

"Meaning, it's only fit for Klein to drink," Harry snarked out from where he and Silica were sitting.

"I wonder what he would say if he heard that," Rain commented. "Anyway, Kirito. Meeting. Details, please."

Kirito nodded. "Well, the ones I met were at the request of Leafa," he said. "We will need to be on our toes if we decide to help them."

"Thanks for volunteering us," Harry said sarcastically. "So, how bad is it?"

"Not too bad," Lux said. "Most of them seem to know what they're doing, at least. But that's it. They seem to know what they're doing. Whether that will be enough is a different matter. Even with our method now made public, there aren't that many who have managed to complete it."

Asuna nodded. While the method they used made it simple for them, it didn't mean that it was necessarily _easy_. What worked for them wouldn't necessarily work for everyone else.

"So, we're all going to have to carry them, then," Rain noted. "We can't, I dunno, train them up to an acceptable standard?"

"It depends on how long they want to take," Silica said. "Remember, it took us months to get you, Lux and Strea up to standard. Of course, we can set the bar a little lower, more like what the Moonlit Black Cats were at before that incident. Speaking of Strea, where is she and Yui?"

Asuna was about to reply that she was sure they would arrive shortly when the door to the tavern opened, admitting Strea. "Well, Strea is right there," she said, indicating the Gnome that just entered.

"And Yui is here as well!" Strea chirped. "And we brought someone with us as well."

"Oh?" Asuna asked.

"Yup!" Strea replied cheerfully. "And I think you will be surprised." She turned to the door. "Yui, bring her in!"

Yui entered and turned back to the door. "Come on, you want to see them," she said gently.

Asuna was about to ask who Yui was talking to when a woman entered the tavern. A woman she hadn't seen in over two years.

"Both of you look different from when I last saw you, Kirito, Asuna," the woman said. "But I can tell that it is you."

"No way," Kirito said quietly as he got up from his seat.

Asuna could understand Kirito's disbelief, given that when they last saw her, she was an NPC. An advanced one, granted, but still an NPC.

"Kizmel," Asuna said just as quietly. "How…?"

"I don't know," Kizmel replied honestly. "One moment, I was in Aincrad, about to ask Her Majesty for permission to take a leave of absence so I could visit you and then I woke up here."

"I think I will head to the back and check my inventory," Agil said, stepping away from the bar. "You all want anything before I do?"


	4. Startling Introductions

Mystic Knight Online

Chapter 4: Startling Introductions are what Lay the Groundwork

 **April 11, 2025 - Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

She purred as her Wingless One gently scratched the feathers between her wings. She still didn't understand what had happened to change her Wingless One's appearance, but the scent was still the same, her vocalizations were the same, and so, she _was_ her Wingless One, despite the fact that she and the others could now produce wings or make them disappear.

All she was concerned about was that they could now fly with her, though her Wingless One's fumbles learning how was certainly amusing. Like a hatchling learning, really, though she learned quickly.

Besides, the male who her Wingless One had chosen as a mate was here. And they _still_ hadn't had any whelps yet. How long did it take for a dam to be ready to lay eggs, anyway? Or were they the kind who bore live young?

Well, if that was the case, then it might be a few seasons, though her Wingless One should have since shown the signs that she was gravid with young if that was the case. Perhaps she hadn't become fertile yet?

Maybe that was why her Wingless One had adopted her into the nest.

She heard the den barrier open and idly looked at it. Was another entering? Oh, it was the Large One who appeared older but curiously smelled more like a hatchling that had suddenly grown into being an adult. Strange, that.

And she could smell the Little One as well. She seemed younger than the Large One, but smelled older. Not much older, but she smelled as if she was the one who hatched first. But there was another scent as well. A new Wingless One?

She sniffed the air, taking in the scent. She smelled the shiny stuff that made the shells the Wingless Ones often had covering them and used as claws when they fought, the smell of the forest that clung to this new Wingless One like she, and it was a female, Pina noted, and something familiar. Like she came from the Old Place where the rest of the Nest spent those seasons before coming to this new and strange Place.

Not that she was overly discomfited about this New Place. Her Wingless Ones might be slightly different in appearance and scent here, but they were still hers. And better, they could now grow wings and fly!

Still, this new Wingless One merited investigating.

When her Wingless One was done grooming her with her very flexible front claws that is.

##

Asuna had a hard time keeping her composure as she stared at Kizmel. To see someone from Aincrad, not merely a surviving player, but and actual resident from there was a surprise. That her former ally during that quest campaign was here, and she could see the icon showing that she was a player now…

 _How?_ She thought. _What is-?_

"Before you ask the questions I know you have, I think we ne- never mind, Agil has already gone to the back like he said he would," Strea said, being unusually serious. "But really, checking his inventory? He can do it from his menu right here."

"He runs a bar Outside, Strea," Harry said. "He knows when he shouldn't be around to hear a conversation. But we should get the details elsewhere. Agil _is_ running a business here." Asuna knew that what he didn't say was that whatever was about to be discussed, they didn't want the GMs potentially finding out about. "But we can make some introductions, at least." He stood up and gave a Western-style bow. "I'm Hadrian, but feel free to call me Harry if you so wish to." He turned to Silica. "Dear?"

Silica stopped grooming Pina and stood as well. "I'm Silica, Harry's wife," she said with her own bow. "She gestured to Pina, who had taken wing and was giving Kizmel a curious look. "And this is Pina."

"A Feathered Dragon as a companion, you must be the one who was known as the Dragon Princess in Aincrad," Kizmel said with some surprise. "Which would make your husband the Young Knight. And it looks as if the rumors I heard about you both being a little young to have gone through a bonding ceremony, you would call it a marriage I believe, are true."

Asuna kept her own surprise at Kizmel knowing that bit of information off her face. Had Kizmel been a player in SAO, then her knowing Harry and Silica's Titles in SAO wouldn't have been a surprise, but she had been an NPC there. _And perhaps I shouldn't be surprised,_ she thought. SAO's evolution into being more complex than it had already been at the beginning as was something they had all known of and recognized. She looked at Kirito who simply shrugged in response.

"We get that a lot," Silica said with a wry smile. "And our marriage is not officially recognized because of our ages. Not by our Lawkeepers, at least." She used the term for the NPC magistrates of the various towns in Aincrad. "Here, it is recognized. Where we're from, it's officially a betrothal, but it's unofficially recognized by some due to my being recognized as one of the heads of my husband's family."

"A betrothal, that only happens among us with the nobility," Kizmel said. "Are you nobles in your own land?"

Asuna almost giggled at the sour look that briefly appeared on Harry's face. She knew his opinions about being thought to be a nobleman.

"In a way, perhaps," Harry hedged. "I might be called a Lord in specific circumstances, but there are no titles behind it, and haven't for over three centuries. It's more a legacy honor, than anything. I'm not so arrogant as to think that makes me a noble, especially as I wasn't raised as one."

Silica nodded.

"Before anyone asks, I didn't know until recently," Harry said. "My parents were murdered, and my surviving relatives either didn't know, or they didn't tell me. They were petty like that. And even after I found out, you didn't ask and I didn't see a need to tell. And, as I mentioned, it's more honorary."

"That's a fair point, Harry," Asuna said with a nod. She knew that he wasn't saying everything, of course, and resolved to ask him for clarification about what he meant at a later time. Or maybe she should start with Silica, and see what she had to say. For all that their marriage wasn't valid in the real world, she already knew about her younger friend's position as the co-head of Harry's family, though it was only the two of them as of now.

"Ah, so it's more an honor bestowed upon your family for deeds done in the past," Kizmel said.

"That's... one way of putting it, yes," Harry said hesitantly. "But _please_ , don't call me 'Lord' here."

"Why not?" Kizmel asked. "It's only appropriate."

"Perhaps it is," Harry replied. And oh, Asuna could tell that even _that_ was grudging. "Even if it is true, it would be something I haven't earned, only inherited. The titles I got in Aincrad, the honors and dishonors attributed to me, _they_ were things I earned through my own actions."

"Then perhaps calling you Sir Hadrian would suffice?" Kizmel asked. "And honors and dishonors?"

"We can discuss that later," Harry said, closing that line of discussion. "I believe we need to finish the introductions first. And then, we need to take this to a place more appropriate." He looked at Rain and Lux. "Ladies, if you would?"

"Oh, right," Rain said. " _Privyet_ , I'm Rain. So, you know Kirito and Asuna?"

"Indeed," Kizmel said with a nod.

"That's cool," Rain replied and then smirked. "I bet you have some stories to tell about them from when you were working with them."

"She does," Asuna said. "Mostly relating to how we fought together, though there are a few more private events that she was there for."

"Both you and Kirito were good at scrubbing my back when I shared a bath with one of you, though Kirito was somewhat embarrassed," Kizmel said.

"Like those, yes," Asuna said as she saw Kirito's face flush. She turned to Lux. "And we still have one more who needs to introduce herself."

Lux nodded at the silent prod and stood. "Right, I'm Lux," she said as she bowed. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine," Kizmel replied with a nod. "Now, while I can tell that while this place would be a comfortable location to discuss things, some of you are of the feeling that it may not be appropriate." She looked in Harry's direction.

Harry nodded and then stiffened before he turned and grabbed something, which then appeared to Asuna as a Cait Sith. She readied herself, either to talk fast, or to bring out her "Princess" persona before the Cait Sith's features became apparent.

"Argo," she said as she relaxed. "So nice of you to join us." She looked at Harry as he let go of her. "How did you know she was there?"

Harry smirked. "She didn't keep her giggling quiet enough," he said.

 _Translation: He caught her with his SA,_ Asuna thought.

"I wasn't giggling, Harry," Argo grumbled.

 _He shouldn't have noticed her,_ Asuna's thoughts translated.

"Chuckling then," Harry corrected.

"Better."

"Yes, chuckling that sounded suspiciously like giggling." Silica added.

 _In other words, she was there long enough for him to notice and surprise her,_ Asuna realized. And it gave their suspicions that Argo had a Unique Skill related to stealth back in SAO more credence. She probably hadn't yet divested herself of the bad habits that being truly unnoticeable to even those looking for her that had come about. After all, her stealth was already good enough without it that even _Kirito_ had to be paying attention and actually looking for something hidden to notice her, and he had the most sensitive SA of all of them.

Of course, Harry was almost as sensitive and was very good at being aware of his surroundings to begin with.

Argo shot Silica a sour look before turning her attention to Kizmel. A familiar smile was starting to form on the Rat's face.

"Argo, I know you have questions, but hold off on them for now," Asuna said before the Information Broker could say anything. "This isn't the place." She saw that Argo was about to say something, paused, and then grudgingly nodded.

"Harry," Asuna said. "Let Agil know that he can stop worrying about not over hearing us and catch up. You already know where we're going as we have business there anyway."

Harry nodded and headed to the back of the tavern.

"So, I'm going to meet this associate of Strea and Yui's?" Argo asked.

Asuna nodded.

"You're taking the fun out of this, Aa-chan."

##

Kizmel looked around her as everyone aside from Hadrian made their way through the city that was within the giant tree, Yui had called it Yggdrasil, she recalled. And the name, Yggdrasil City, was whoever who named it that uncreative? It was almost human in its lack of imagination, Goddess' sakes!

Yes, it was a city that was nestled in the branches of the giant tree. But it wasn't a city that was a part of the tree! The streets and buildings weren't being supported by anything anchoring the entire city to it. It was almost as if the city was a separate structure that was floating above the tree and the boughs of the tree then grew and surrounded it.

 _And perhaps it was,_ she thought. _Had the Great Separation not happened, would Aincrad have been like this? Would my people and the Forest Elves still be in their ancestral lands?_ _No, you were told the reality of what Aincrad was, a created world. What you thought you knew was… no, it isn't a lie made by a madman. My memories, the stories I know, they're real. Even if the others don't see it that way._

"You're comparing it to Aincrad. _"_ The- Cait Sith? She was still familiarizing herself with the races of this strange new world. Yes, the young woman was a Cait Sith. And in Aincrad, she had supposedly been human. Then again, she herself wasn't a Dark Elf here, but a Spriggan. What was the Cait Sith's name again, Silica? She did have a blue Feathered Dragon with her, so that must be her name.

"I can't help but do so," she replied. "Aincrad was my home, after all." She idly shooed the Feathered Dragon away when it flew too close again. "And could you keep your dragon from flying too close like she has?"

Silica nodded and whistled, calling the Feathered Dragon over. "Pina, you know better," she chided. "I know you're curious, so am I, but you're being rude."

Pina made a contrite chirp in response as Silica gently grabbed her and placed her on her shoulders.

"My thanks," Kizmel said. "And from the tone of your statement…"

Silica nodded. "You're comparing everything you've seen so far to what you've seen in Aincrad," she said. "I can understand that, I think all of us have done the same at some point." Her words were delivered in a quiet tone. "And despite what you are, you're thinking in terms of an NPC that has become more."

"I am not a golem," Kizmel said lowly. "I never was and none of us were."

"True," Silica agreed. "And Harry and I didn't treat the NPCs as such. Despite what we saw, what we _perceived,_ Harry always was polite in his interactions with them and I followed his example. More out of habit, but Aincrad was a world in its own right and we had to accept that it was our reality for two years. It was not a matter of _realness_ , it never was. It was a matter of awareness, of context. We're just... helping you deal with expanding yours."

"And how would you go about doing so?" Kizmel asked.

"One day at a time," Silica replied. "There is no single way to go about it and everyone is unique. Each of us handled and adjusted to the context of Aincrad differently, after all."

Kizmel nodded and continued to walk with the group. She wondered if they would be able to help her adjust to her new circumstances.

Hadrian caught up to them right as they were entering the nondescript residence they had walked to with a conflicted expression on his face. "Asuna, I'm going to have to log out for a moment and call some people," he said.

"What happened, Harry?" Asuna asked.

"Nothing major, or at least I hope it isn't," Harry said. "We just underestimated just how sharp and perceptive the old barkeep is. While he didn't outright say it, I'm sure he's figured out what Yui, Strea and maybe Kizmel are."

Asuna blinked. "Figured it out?" She asked.

Hadrian nodded.

Asuna sighed. "Log out then," she ordered. "Make any calls you need to and come back online if you can."

Hadrian nodded and opened his menu. Picking an option that she hadn't tested, Kizmel watched as his body disappeared into light.

"Something happen?" Kizmel asked Asuna.

Asuna looked at her. "Possibly," she said. "Harry was light on the details, but he seems to believe that Agil may have figured out that Strea, Yui and you are not normal players. I wish I could say I'm surprised, but I'm not."

"You shouldn't be, Aa-chan," Argo said. "He didn't become a successful merchant in SAO by being unobservant. I know that he knows more than he lets on, and he hasn't talked about a few secrets he figured out or suspected."

"Like the ones we learned about Harry?" Asuna asked.

Argo shrugged. "That, I don't know," she admitted. "But the ones who are watching over him, and probably even you guys, are known to the Yakuza there. And the Yaks _do_ have a stronger presence in and around Akiba than many think. He wouldn't still have a business running if he didn't know how to keep his mouth shut and to have not heard or seen things if anyone official asks."

"Yakuza?" Kizmel asked.

"Criminal organizations that are a necessary evil at the best of times," Asuna said. "We would rather do without them, but they know the rules of society, so they are tolerated, barely. They do tend to keep worse criminal organizations from gaining too strong a foothold in Japan, or keep our worst elements in line out of fear of drawing their attention."

"You would rather do without them," Kizmel observed. "But it would not put an end to criminals."

Asuna nodded. "Criminals would still exist," she admitted. "Human nature is what it is, after all. People will always want something they otherwise couldn't get, or do things they shouldn't. We aren't perfect and I doubt we ever will be. But yes, doing without groups like the Yakuza would definitely be preferable."

 **Nerima, Potter-Black Apartment**

Harry took his AmuSphere off and reached for his glasses. Putting them on, he got up from his bed and exited the room. Walking out into the living room of his and Sirius' apartment, he spied his godfather talking with Chiaki. Not too odd an occurrence, really, even if it was Genta Umemori who was largely responsible for watching over him among the Shiba retainers now. After all, he actually ran a business that he could bring with him, so his showing up in various places wasn't too unusual.

Especially as he seemed to always have his paperwork in order to allow him to set up in those places. Harry suspected that magic was involved, but he wasn't so impolite as to voice those suspicions. It would fit what he had seen of the Sushi-ya's character to make sure that he did all the paperwork the hard way simply to make sure that anyone magical couldn't simply dispel the paperwork.

"Something going on, Harry?" Sirius asked as he looked toward Harry.

Harry nodded and turned to Chiaki. "Mister Tani, can you reach either Lord Shiba or Lady Shiba?" He asked. "Or maybe Gus? I need some advice on something."

"I can," Chiaki replied, reaching into his pocket. "Did someone tell you they suspected your abilities might have been more real than what they seemed?"

Harry shook his head. "No," he replied. "I wouldn't be surprised if he suspected, but if he does suspect that my Unique Skill in SAO was actually based on reality, he's not saying anything. It's _Agil_ , Mister Tani. If he suspected it, he would keep his mouth shut. It's about the AIs. We… just met another one, one from SAO."

"Another?!" Sirius asked in surprise. "I know about Strea and Yui, and I have heard that the administrative AI from SAO is out there as well, but-"

"It's not CARDINAL," Harry said. "It's an AI who was apparently an NPC in SAO who… I guess evolved into being an AI is the best way to describe her."

Sirius looked like he was going to say something when he paused. "What." He said.

"Evolved into being an AI," Harry said. "It's not all too surprising, now that I think about it."

"Why do you say that?" Chiaki asked as he pulled his phone out. "I'll make the call in a moment, but I am curious."

"Kirito, I mean, Kazuto, could probably explain it better, but while we were there, SAO was changing around us," Harry said. "I learned early on that _how_ one treated the NPCs there could determine just how comfortable your stay at a place was. It's hard to put into words, but their responses to us as we interacted with them, over time, became less... robotic? Yeah, that works. Their responses became less robotic as time went on. And _some_ of us, the players that is, began to treat them more like people than things for the most part."

"It could have been your way of coping with it, you know." Sirius said. "I mean, you all were there for a little over two years and maybe you all just began projecting what you expected onto them, or something."

"Perhaps," Harry agreed. "And early on, that probably was the case. But remember what I said? That our stays in places could be made more comfortable or less depending on how we treated the NPCs? I guess she got the right stimuli at the right time to...develop? Actualize?" He shook his head. "Not that however she came to become self-aware really matters now. She is self-aware and it will be the job of all of us in Steel Phoenix to help her adjust."

"Why you all?" Sirius asked.

Harry looked at his godfather and raised an eyebrow. "Remember, Sirius, two of our own are AIs," he said. "We have experience in that."

"That experience might not apply here," Chiaki noted. "Yui and Strea came into being already aware of what they were."

"Mister Tani," Harry began, running a hand through his hair, "You were raised magical, yes?"

Chiaki chuckled. "Yes. Dad did try his best to make my life normal, but—"

"I wasn't," Harry said. "In fact, my guardians were... I've heard thaumaphobic and manaphobic used. They shunned everything from guesting psychics on chat shows to any action movie that got a little too mystical with its martial arts. And _none_ of that changed that I myself am magical."

Sirius looked confused. "In other words, much like us having to integrate muggleborns into our society," he said after a moment. His tone said that he wasn't entirely sure of it.

"Pretty much, yes," Harry said, and Sirius smiled. "Things like teaching her how to act around players and covering for her slip ups. Hopefully with fewer mistakes and unconscious biases than I noticed in the wizarding world. Though I think we can pass some of it off as her being a Role-player or Chuuni as we work on that."

"Role-player?" Sirius asked, lost again. Chiaki chuckled and Sirius shot him a glare as he added, "Chuuni?"

"A role-player is someone who gets into the role," Harry said. "With ALO being what it is, we can pass off her actions and statements as her acting a role and staying in character. Chuuni is similar, but implies that the person acts like that in real life due to wishing to be living a fantasy because they want to be special and unique. I would need to know her better than a brief meet and greet before I can see where she would fall in that spectrum. We do tend to pass off Strea as a Chuuni- it'd be like passing a friend who wasn't good at Muggle Studies off as eccentric and a bit out of touch."

"Oh, the way Frank would pass Alice off back in the day," Sirius said, and his smile was melancholic. A good memory with sadness that came later, then.

"If you like," Harry agreed. "Or the way you or I are given that bit of leeway for our British manners overriding our knowing the way it's done here." He looked at Chiaki. "So, Mister Tani, that call?"

Chiaki nodded and then began to call the Shiba Manor. "Hello?" He asked after a moment. "Oh, Jii. Are Lord Takeru or Lady Kaoru available? No, it's not an emergency. It's just that Mister Potter came upon something and is looking for some advice. They're at the Ministry? What would- never mind. Is August there? He is? Can you put him on the line then? All right, I'll wait."

Harry turned to his godfather. "You know, that Agil has either figured it out or will soon doesn't mean he would be the only one," he said.

Sirius blinked. "Who else would?" He asked. "I mean, I know that Argo already knows about Strea and Yui, and it isn't hard to imagine that she would figure out that this new AI is one."

"She already knows," Harry chuckled and then smirked. "She tried being a rat in the walls but had stayed still long enough right next to me for my SA to pick up on her presence. We all suspected that she had a stealth related Unique Skill in SAO, and it wouldn't have translated to ALO. Not that it would matter that much, her stealth was already good even without it."

"Are you sure she had one?" Sirius asked.

Harry shrugged. "No, I'm not," he replied. "And the trolling kitsune isn't going to confirm or deny that she had one." He saw his godfather open his mouth to reply. "Yes, yes, that's rich coming from me, considering how I and Keiko refused to confirm or deny some things in SAO."

"Harry?" Chiaki asked. "I have Gus on the line. If you would take my phone and talk with him?"

Harry turned to the Shiba retainer. "Ah, thank you, Mister Tani," he said as he took the offered cell phone. "Gus?"

"What's going on, Harry," Gus said. "You wanted to talk with me?"

"Not so much as talk, as ask for a little advice," Harry replied.

"About what?"

"We just encountered a new AI," Harry explained. "And while her identity as one wasn't said in front of Agil, he did voice his suspicions about at least Yui and Strea to me when I went and fetched him from his bar's back room in ALO."

"Let me guess, he went back there to sort some things out," Gus said.

"That's what he said," Harry confirmed. "Of course, it's more that he knows when he doesn't need to overhear something. To be honest, I'm not all that surprised that he figured out that those two were AIs."

"That doesn't surprise me," Gus said. "So, what advice do you need?"

"Well, outside of how this will need to be handled, how are AIs going to be treated?" Harry asked.

"With the first, I can talk to him," Gus said. "There isn't anything I can really do to force him to stay quiet, but I can at least mention that there are people who would appreciate that he kept that quiet for now. As for the second, I will need to talk with my godmother and Takeru." Harry could hear the sound of a throat being cleared on the other end of the line. "Right, right, _Lord_ Takeru. Don't give me that stern look, Jii. Lecture me on proper ways to refer to them later, I need to finish this conversation. Sorry about that, Kusakabe-jii is a stickler for some things."

"Don't worry about it," Harry said with a chuckle. "So you need to talk with Lady or Lord Shiba about it?"

"They know about Strea and Yui, so they might have an idea of how it can be handled," Gus replied. "You mentioned another AI?"

Harry nodded. "Yes," he said into the phone. "Strea and Yui brought her to us, since we were all planning to meet before… this is something better explained in person, so I'll be brief. This AI came from SAO, but was an NPC there. No, I don't know how she became a full AI. Anyway, you can talk to Agil?"

"Yup," Gus replied.

"Thanks, Gus," Harry replied. "I won't take any more of your time, then. Bye." He disconnected the call and handed the cell phone off to Chiaki. "Well, that's one issue settled, now for me to head back online so we can settle the next one."

"And what would that be?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing too major," Harry said. "We have been in contact with CARDINAL and she handed us something that Kayaba was working on and-"

"So that was the project she gave- wait, _what_?!" Sirius asked, interrupting Harry.

"She gave us something that Kayaba was working during SAO," Harry replied calmly. "To the best of our knowledge, it's supposed to be a VR development tool. Of course, we haven't, or to be more appropriate, _Kazuto_ hasn't, uncompressed the data yet so he could look it over. Didn't I tell you about it?"

"No, you didn't," Sirius said. "You mentioned that she gave you all something of a project, but you didn't explain what it was."

"Ah, right," Harry said. "We only told Keiko's grandparents about it and her uncles were there to hear it. Well, all you need to know is that she gave this package to us to do as we saw fit. I know she wants us to release it, but she is leaving the decision to us. We were planning to tell her that we are going to wait a bit before releasing it."

"I'm surprised that none of you want nothing to do with it," Chiaki said.

Harry looked at the retainer. "Mister Tani, even if we were inclined to want nothing to do with it, there were two reasons for us to at least look it over and consider it; Strea and Yui."

"Why them?" Sirius asked.

"Because we ran into a glitched area that showed us that, as bad as it is for us, it's orders of magnitude worse for them," Harry replied. "Yui likened it to _radiation poisoning_. And unlike us, they can't log out because their core data is _inside_ ALO. At the very least, we would want to see if we can use this to create a space for them to leave their core data and come into ALO the traditional way, by logging in, and not be at risk of a glitch doing permanent damage to them."

Sirius nodded. "Okay, I can see that," he said. "But why release it?"

Harry thought the question over for a moment. "I don't know if this is true, but I think Kayaba may have done what he did because someone else, with far more sinister intentions, would have thought about doing it on top of his other reasons," he replied. "Say what you want about him, I have little that is positive to say about him, but Kayaba was at least fair in what he did. He gave us a chance and kept his promise when we beat him. That's not something you can say about everyone else who would have done what he did. At least with this, we have an idea of what it can be used for and how it could be used to repeat SAO. Which means we can put in safeguards against it. Anyway, I won't take any more of your time, gentlemen." He nodded at Sirius and Chiaki and headed back to his room.

 **Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

Kirito looked around the workshop as Harry logged out, his mind awhirl. He had kept his mouth shut when Strea and Yui brought Kizmel in, despite the question that was on his mind: How did she come here? CARDINAL had told them that Aincrad had been destroyed by Kayaba when they all killed him and were freed from SAO.

That Kizmel was an AI was, in all respects, the _least_ puzzling thing about her presence here in ALO. She had behaved in ways that were not like an NPC's scripts ever since he and Asuna managed to prevent her death, taking actions that were far more independent than even the NPCs late in SAO had been beginning to demonstrate.

She may not have been an AI back then, but she had already begun to show the emergent behaviors of evolving into one. The question, then, was what finished her evolution and when it happened. Considering Aincrad's continued evolution throughout the time everyone was trapped there, he doubted that any of them would ever fully know.

Well, CARDINAL probably knew, if only the how of it. The why could be a different matter entirely. If humans haven't managed to figure out the reasons behind their own sentience and self-awareness, he doubted that CARDINAL had figured the reasons why of her own.

"You seem pensive, Kirito," he heard Kizmel say, pulling him out of his thoughts.

Kirito turned to her. "Just wondering what questions I should ask CARDINAL," he said.

"Such as?" Kizmel prompted.

Kirito thought for a moment. There were a number of questions that were in the back of his mind that he could ask CARDINAL. Questions that weren't limited to the Seed. "Such as how she is keeping the GMs off your backs," he said. "Well, Yui and Strea's backs, but I doubt that you'll be content to blend into the background. Not with you now being recognized by the system as a Player."

"The GMs?" Kizmel asked. "Would that be along the lines of those like this… Kayaba?"

"In a way," Kirito said. "They are the ones from our world who are responsible for overseeing things in this world." He sighed. "But not like Kayaba. He might have… he was a brilliant man, a genius even. And we still don't know why he did what he did. Yes, he said it was to get those of us who were trapped on Aincrad to become heroes of our own stories, but what does that mean? Heroes? _Us_? When Harry gets back, he would have a few things to say about that, mostly in the form of how _he_ at least isn't a hero."

"You all freed those trapped on Aincrad," Kizmel said. "It was destroyed by Kayaba, but there is no way you could have predicted that. And even if you did… you didn't think it was real, did you?"

"It depends on what you mean by 'real'," they heard someone say. Both turned to see Rain approach.

"What do you mean by that?" Kizmel asked.

Rain shrugged. "I overheard a bit of what you and Silica were talking about when we were walking over here," she said. "She explained how we had to accept Aincrad as our reality while we were there, and she's right, we did. We, or at least our minds, were trapped there. If we died there, our bodies died as well. That's about as real for us as it can get in a virtual world. It was a matter of perspective that took us a while to realize."

Kizmel nodded. "So this is just as real as Aincrad is?" She asked.

"To you, it is real," Rain said. "To us, it's not. Neither was Aincrad, but it was far more real than this place and we had to accept that it _was_ real in its own way. I can't really explain it any better than that."

"Things aren't as final here," Kirito said. "If we die here, we can come back. Aincrad was much like Outside. We died there, we died for real. No coming back, no second chances. This world is what we were told it was, a game. It's not as real to us."

Kizmel frowned. "So, while Aincrad wasn't quite real to you, it was real enough?" She asked.

"Pretty much," Rain replied. "And while it wasn't _real_ , real, do you think we would have accepted it being destroyed out of hand like CARDINAL implied it was? For two years, that place was home for us. I still find myself expecting to wake up back at the villa in Selmburg some mornings and wonder where I am when I don't."

Kirito nodded. He had been disoriented more than once when he woke up and it wasn't in the room he had claimed as his own there as well but the real world. While those incidents were becoming fewer and further between, it was replaced by a wish that he could have shown it to his family.

For all that it was intended to be temporary, they had made that villa home.

 _And now I have an idea for what I will do with the Seed as we make sure it's safe,_ he thought. _Yui and Strea would like it. A little piece of the place that was their home for those months they were with us there_. He heard a door open and spied CARDINAL walk in.

"My apologies," she said. "I had to discuss something with Freyja, my counterpart here, and it went long."

"Anything we need to be concerned about?" Asuna asked.

CARDINAL shook her head. "At this time, no," she replied. "It was merely myself coordinating with her in case I came across any more data from Aincrad like Kizmel's."

"So, more AIs?" Rain asked.

"Perhaps," CARDINAL replied. "I noticed that Hadrian is not present, has something happened?"

"He had to log out for a bit," Silica said. "Agil, a friend of ours from SAO, seems to have made the connection that Yui and Strea are not human, so Harry logged out to get advice from some people in the know on what to do." She looked the side as someone seemed to materialize. "Never mind, he's back."

"I managed to get in contact with Gus, he will talk with Agil tomorrow," Harry said without preamble. He then spied CARDINAL. "Ah, CARDINAL, if they haven't mentioned it yet, Agil might have figured out that Yui and Strea are AIs. As far as I know, he doesn't know about you, though."

CARDINAL nodded. "Is there anything I would need to be concerned about?" She asked.

Harry shook his head. "I doubt it," he replied. "As I mentioned, someone is going to talk with him and let him to know to keep this quiet for now, not that I expect him to mention it to anyone to begin with."

"Anyone else who might deduce that Strea and Yui are not human?"

Harry looked thoughtful. "None that come to mind," he admitted.

"Klein might have," Argo said. "But if he has, he probably thinks that they're Yokai and not AIs."

"Like yourself, Argo the Rat?" CARDINAL asked.

Argo looked at her in shock.

"Yes, I know what you really are," the AI said. Kirito knew he wasn't imagining the ever so slight satisfaction in her expression. "And no, I will not divulge that information. Who and what you are- Outside I think is the term you use, yes? Well, who and what you are Outside has no relevance here. Only who you are and what you can do here."

Argo nodded "I guess I can live with that," she said. "And it's not like I have no experience in that, right?"

CARDINAL nodded and then turned to everyone. "Now, I do believe that you all came here for a reason?"

Kirito nodded and stepped forward. "We did," he said. He then explained that they had decided to hold off on releasing the World Seed for the time being. First, so that they could check it and make sure that it was completely safe for themselves. Second, he wanted to play with it and see how it worked, so that when it did get released, he could provide some information on how to use it alongside it.

CARDINAL nodded. "And it would give you a place that Yui and Strea could log off to," she said. "Kizmel as well, if you would have her."

"It's her choice," Kirito said. "We will be available to advise her when we are online but we won't force her to join us."

"That's right," Asuna said, stepping forward. "All of us may have joined together due to circumstances, but we stayed together by choice." She looked at Kizmel. "If she decides to strike it out on her own, we have no right to stop her from doing so. That's not our way."

CARDINAL nodded. "Understood," she said. "And fitting, to be frank. Kayaba may have taken your freedom, but he never took your ability to choose, even if he did limit your options. Stay and be safe. Or go out and fight for your freedom, despite the risks. And while Aincrad may be no more, that may not be the case in the future. If it comes back, you won't allow it to become what it was. Make it what it was supposed to be."

She looked at them all. "You have a seed that you have decided to plant in the future. What worlds will be sown with it is up to you and others."


	5. Expectations, Valid and Otherwise

Mystic Knight Online: Worlds to Sow

Chapter 5: Expectations, Valid and Otherwise

 **April 11, 2025 - Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

"Well, that was poetic," Harry said drily. "Sowing worlds with a seed? Have you taken up philosophy as a hobby, by chance?"

"I am partial to the works of Dennett," CARDINAL replied. "The man's works on cognition and how it evolved naturally, along with aspects such as religion and morality and how they evolved from a naturalistic standpoint, rather than a spiritual one, do resonate with me."

Harry blinked. "Okay, I didn't expect that," he admitted.

"You do not expect a lot of things, I would think," CARDINAL said.

Rain barked out a laugh while both Silica and Lux giggled as Harry gave the AI a disgruntled look before raising his hand and giving her the point. "And to think, you're the sheltered one," he said.

"It gives me plenty of time to think up witty comments," CARDINAL replied.

"Of course, it's Harry," Asuna said. "He does leave himself open like that."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, that- wait a minute," he began and then glared at Asuna as everyone laughed. "Comedians, all of you." He said with a completely false disgruntled look before his face relaxed into a smile. He then looked at Kizmel. "Well, I think we should make proper introductions now."

"You all did tell me your names," Kizmel noted.

"That was so that you could put faces to names," Harry said. "I do recall that you mentioned that all you had to go on of us all, barring Kirito and Asuna, of course, was rumor."

"And the rumors of us were varied," Silica piped up.

"Especially the ones about you and Harry, Silica." Lux said. "What were the hot ones again? The ones that said that you two were up to salacious activities in the privacy of the room you often shared before you got married, or the ones after your wedding about you two working on ways to add to the Kama Sutra?"

"Lux, those rumors are old news," Rain said. "With their anniversary coming up, I thought the rumors about them were about how they were going to scandalize everyone in a few days."

Harry and Silica shot them flat looks. "We're trying to be serious here, girls," Silica said.

"So are we," Rain replied. "We might be failing at it but we _are_ trying."

Harry glanced at Kizmel, who was looking confused. "Kizmel, Rain and Lux," he said. "They think they're funny."

"You mean we're not?" Lux asked in faux shock. "Why didn't any of you tell us?"

"The same reason we didn't tell Harry back in Aincrad," Kirito replied. "It warns everyone about you."

"Kizmel, may I introduce Steel Phoenix," Asuna said wryly. "This is how we tend to be when we're not in the field killing monsters, doing quests and playing at being heroes."

"Or trying to find beer that doesn't taste like piss," Harry said. "I've heard of some Gnome brews that might be promising."

"You and your beer, Harry," Asuna said with an exasperated sigh.

"Or looking for stuffed animals to add to my collection," Strea added. "What?" She asked as everyone looked at her. "They look cute, and I like to snuggle them when I go to bed."

"And now we have proof that Strea is the younger sister," Silica noted.

"At least when she's doing that, she isn't complaining about being bored," Yui murmured.

"And a bored Strea is always concerning," Asuna agreed.

"Hey!" Strea protested. "I'm not that bad!"

"A certain incident when you went on a fishing trip with Kirito says otherwise," Harry countered.

"Crystals aren't supposed to be used that way," Kirito agreed. "And I'm surprised we didn't blow a hole between floors, considering the explosion. Good thing Harry can't make them here."

"Oh?" Harry asked with a challenging note in his voice. "Challenge accepted."

"Harry, no." Asuna said.

"Harry, yes!" Harry countered.

"Well, we're doomed," Rain deadpanned. "Silica, can you curb his enthusiasm?"

"Harry, no dooming Alfheim this soon," Silica said.

"But it will be such a glorious Doom, dear, _glorious_!" Harry replied.

"True, but I thought we were saving the breaking the game for later," she turned to the others. "If he's still insistent on this, I tried. But it's Harry, you know how he can be when he gets ideas."

Kizmel just looked at them and then at Yui.

"Yes, they're like this," the AI responded to Kizmel's unasked question. "And no, they're not insane." She looked thoughtful. "Well, mostly."

"I... see," Kizmel said in an uncertain voice.

 **April 12, 2025 - Nerima, Saotome-Tendo Dojo**

Hiyori slowly trudged back inside the dojo, taking her shoes off where Keiko indicated that she should, wincing as her muscles protested the movement. Various light exercises and calisthenics to warm up, and then physical exercises until they couldn't do any more. Pushups, sit ups, jumps, and a "light" run of three kilometers. They were being asked to head back inside for something else. She hadn't been a paragon of physical fitness before SAO, she certainly wasn't now. Her t-shirt was clinging to her with sweat, highlighting her chest for all to see, her track pants stuck to her legs, and she was sure that her shoes had been squelching from the sweat that pooled in them.

She didn't protest, though. None of them did. SAO had given them the kind of personal discipline to not complain about something just because it was hard on them. And it wasn't as if they were told that they had to meet a standard, yet. Only complete the exercises to the best of their abilities, so Grandmaster Saotome knew where they stood.

Or they were being sadists and reveling in everyone's suffering, given how the others were looking just as worn and pained as she did for the most part.

The only one of them who wasn't moving with the careful slowness of someone pushed to their limits was Keiko, and even she was showing signs that the exercises had pushed her. Harry was clearly exhausted as well, but he hid it under a stoic facade. One that was ruined by the winces he sometimes gave, not to mention moving with the same careful slowness, but he certainly put an effort to not be visibly bothered.

As she and the others finished trudging, limping and staggering inside, she let out a breath. "So, that was them seeing how out of shape we are?" She asked.

"Not quite," Ranma said suddenly, causing her and the others to turn quickly turn and face him. Hiyori bit back a groan as her muscles protested the movement.

"What do you mean by that?" Nijika asked.

"While seeing your level of physical fitness was a part of it and we also needed you all to see where you stand, the exercise to this point also has another purpose," Ranma said as he turned to Keiko. "Keiko, do the First Kata of the First Form slowly five times. You have it memorized and you already know precisely how it's supposed to go. If there is an error, you will stop and repeat the motion that was incorrect five times and start the kata you were doing over. Everyone, watch carefully."

"Yes, _shishou,_ " Keiko said as she stepped off to the side and got into a stance. To Hiyori's surprise, the girl's stance was steady and her body remained so as she began to slowly go through a kata, starting with a sweep of her left arm, followed by a punch, and began to move with a smooth series of motions before she stopped in the middle of a kick and slowly brought her foot down to the base stance. She then did the kick again five times, and Hiyori quickly noticed that Keiko's foot was kicking out in a slightly different location than where it was when she paused, before restarting the kata. She reached the same point in the kata where she previously stopped and the kick was apparently where it was supposed to go as she continued. After a few more moments, Keiko stopped the kata and got back into her starting stance before doing the kata again.

"... And that was done, why?" Nijika asked.

"Look closer," Harry said. "Also, what do you think they will be teaching us?"

"Harry, care to enlighten us?" Asuna asked.

"Indeed, young man, I would like to hear your observation," Ranma said.

Hiyori turned to look at Harry, who seemed slightly put out at being stared at by everyone else. Odd that.

"Okay, I walked right into that," Harry said with a sigh before taking in a breath. "It all comes down to control. While the... kata?" He looked at Ranma, who nodded. "Right. While the kata has her doing the moves without the dodging or evading, none of the movements are static." He watched as Keiko began the kata a third time. "Each move is smoothly done, and the kata is more a tactic to get someone to back off and give her room. Either to press the attack or to break off and retreat depends on the situation. Considering our instincts and how we are likely to react to a tangible threat, I can see why this is something they wish to teach us, but it's not the whole of it."

"Control and focus," Kazuto said. "When I was still training in kendo until, well, things happened and I decided to not continue, my grandfather trained both Sugu and I until we felt like we were about to drop. Part of it was to get us in shape for it, part of it was to basically write the moves into our muscles, but it was also to teach us how to work past our exhaustion and remain controlled. Kendo may be a sport that was spun off from kenjutsu, but the discipline and focus aspects were still every bit as important."

"In other words, this training is to help us go from lethal to less lethal methods to handle a threat, if not avoid one entirely," Harry added. "I won't say that they're non-lethal, as in combat, there is no such thing as non-lethal. Only in using methods that aren't _intended_ to kill when done right. And with what they've said our SA has manifested as out here in the real world, and how emotional states can affect it… it's as much for our own safety as it is for the safety of others."

"The military escort when we visited England to handle that one matter," Keiko said. They all turned to her, seeing her holding her stance before a nod from Ranma had her relax from it. "That one sergeant, she did say that they were there as much to not give us a reason to inconvenience the cleaning staff of England's version of the Ministry of Shugenja as much as they were to protect us from those who meant us harm."

"More me, really, but that's only because they don't know just how dangerous you can be, dear," Harry said. "I did have my wand on me there, after all."

"Wait, you have a wand, a magic wand?" Nijika asked and then shook her head. "Oh right, wizard. I'm so used to seeing you with a sword on hand that it's easy to forget where your talents actually lie. What's next? You plan to put on a robe and wizard hat?"

"Only when appropriate." Harry replied. "And before you ask about the wand, I don't have it on me right now." He smirked. "The adults seem to think it's prudent to not have me unsupervised with one in hand out here. Imagine that."

Kazuto snorted. "Yeah, imagine that," he said drily. "But can you blame them? A lot of people think we're time bombs waiting to go off. We all know better, but given that much of what went on in SAO was watched, and some of it made the news…"

Harry nodded. "It's not like you can blame them," he noted before pausing. "Kazuto, you might want to step to the side a bit. You're in the splash zone."

Kazuto blinked. "What do you mean by-" He stopped as Harry was doused with water, catching him as well.

Hiyori was about to comment when she stopped and stared at both Harry and Kazuto.

##

Harry brushed his, now her, red hair out of her eyes. "This is what I mean Kazu-" she paused as she looked at the stunned and now very female Kazuto. She had shrunk a little, or to be more clear, that loss in height had gone someplace else. "Oh bloody hell." She then turned to glare at the two men who had doused her. Both of whom looked a bit sheepish. "Could you two have waited just a moment, or were you in such a rush that you let it all out early?"

"You'd think at their ages that letting it all out prematurely would be a thing of the past," Keiko chimed in.

"Oi!" Both Akira and Ko protested, only to still when Ranma gave them a level look.

"Both of you," the martial arts grandmaster said calmly. "I know that nailing Harry with the Instant Jusenkyo infused water is something of a thing with you both. But it's stopped being amusing weeks ago. Worse, you two have now gotten someone else alongside your intended target with it."

"W- what just… huh?" Kazuto began to say and paused as her soprano voice was heard. She then touched her face and started feeling herself over, pausing when her hands reached her breasts. Harry moved quickly, only stumbling slightly as her changed center of balance briefly threw her off, the transformation wasn't something she had adapted to yet and hoped not to. She grabbed Kazuto's hands before they went lower.

"Easy, Kazuto," Harry said calmly. "Calm down. It's not permanent and once we get some hot water on us, we'll be back to normal. Kazuto, look at me."

"Harry?" Kazuto asked in a shaky voice. "What- what happened to us?"

Harry sighed. "The two idiots who happen to be Keiko's uncles have access to something that does a temporary version of the same curse her grandfather is under," she said. "Hot water will reverse it, and if those two know what's good for them, they'll make sure others don't get caught in the splash zone." She shot the two of them a cold look. "Otherwise, I think I will go back to England and hit up my friend Neville. He has a way with plants, and I am sure I can get him to crossbreed something like a Gerbera."

"Harry, no," Keiko said. "What did that plant do to you to deserve that?"

"Fine, Devil's Snare and a dark room," Harry grumbled. _Not that I would do that to them._

"Nice try," Ko said.

"Bring it, kid," Akira said confidently.

Harry nodded and turned to Ranma. "Grandmaster, how long has it been since you had a girls' night out with your sons?" She asked. "Because it sounds like both your sons are asking for one."

"Volunteering to chaperone?" Ranma asked.

"If you need me to," Harry agreed. "But I would need something appropriate to wear."

"I can help with that," Keiko chimed in. "But first, we need to get some hot water on Kazuto. Nijika, no. You don't need feel him up. Yes, they're real, and they're his until we reverse the transformation with hot water. If you want to, feel Harry up instead."

"You're telling other girls to feel me up?" Harry asked drily.

Keiko was about to reply when she paused and flushed. "Never mind," she said. "Nijika, don't feel Harry up."

"Don't worry, I know that's your job, Keiko," Nijika said. "Even if Harry has a bigger pair of tits than you do right now. Not much bigger, but-"

"Right- wait a minute… damn it, Nijika!"

"I would say the point goes to Nijika there," Hiyori said with some amusement, focusing on the banter to distract herself from what she just saw. It was one thing to see magic demonstrated on an inanimate object. It was another to see two of her friends transformed from being boys to girls.

Kazuto looked at Harry. "Harry?" She asked.

"Yes?"

"You said that hot water reverses this?"

Harry nodded. "Right, let's get onto that while you're still trying to process it and not panicking." She glanced at Asuna. "And I saw that gleam in your eyes, Asuna."

"What do you mean, Harry?" Asuna asked sweetly.

Harry gave her friend a level look. Asuna wasn't much of a prankster most of the time, so her pranks tended to be predictable. "Asuna, I know you," she said. "You don't play pranks all that often, but with this… oh, for crying out loud. Asuna, no."

Asuna smirked at Harry. "Asuna, _yes_."

Harry glared at her for a moment. "You're paying for the spare AmuSpheres and getting Kazuto's permission first," she said with a sigh. "So I can have one with those calibrations and not have to reset the calibrations on mine. They were… thorough, let's just say. And I don't want to have to go through doing those again multiple times because I have to reset the calibrations and recalibrate mine every time." She turned at looked at Keiko as she started laughing, having clearly sussed out what Asuna was thinking.

"Harry," Kazuto spoke up. "You've had this happen often enough that you're used to it, but… _can we reverse this now?!_ "

"I wouldn't say _used_ to it," Harry hedged. "More like resigned to the-"

" _Harry._ "

"Right, hot water," Harry said as she took Kazuto's arm. "Let's get about that, shall we?"

##

Kazuto breathed a sigh of relief after he did a manual check of himself after the hot water was poured over him. Everything was there, where it should be, and he didn't have those additions on his chest. How did girls _move_ with those things on their chests? His balance had been off the entire time, as if that weight was pulling him forward and down until he started shifting his posture a bit further back to account for it. His center of balance was still off when Harry had guided him out to change back. His hips, for one had been wider, changing his stride a bit, and it wasn't as if he had even come close to adjusting to it.

He heard Harry chuckle and turned to his younger friend. "It's not as if you didn't do the same thing, Harry," he said.

"True," Harry replied with a nod. "But that's what makes it amusing. And it hadn't been the first time my body had been transformed, and this method is a _lot_ less uncomfortable."

"There's a story there," Kazuto surmised.

"I was twelve and an idiot," Harry said. "I thought someone knew something and wanted to get that info, and there's this little potion that can change your form into someone else." He shuddered. "Tasted like feet marinated in snot and left out for a week to ripen, and the transformation was _not_ comfortable. It may have been painful, but by that point, having had all the bones in one arm shattered, vanished, and regrown overnight with _another_ potion kind of changed my perception of what pain was. Well, it didn't pan out anyway. The guy was simply talking out his arse, acting like he knew something when he knew bugger all. And I bought into the idea that he knew something."

"It's a form of power, making people think you know what's going on, or know what you're doing," Kazuto mused, squeezing his arm. Gad, even with the same muscle, the tone was different. _How_? He may not have done a _full_ search of his own body, Harry had stopped him as soon as he had begun feeling himself up, and he wasn't going to say anything if Sugu complained about her breasts growing again and how she was now having a harder time binding them with a sarashi without being extremely uncomfortable in the process for Kendo. And he was sure that his transformed self was similarly endowed… and he was going to stop thinking along those lines now. "It's easily shattered if people bother to check the facts... I've decompiled code just to find a supposed revolution was just an old trick applied a new way." He continued, doing his best to distract himself from thinking about how his gender had been recently changed, _twice_.

"Makes sense," Harry said. "Toss me that towel, will you?" He caught it easily, not even looking at it as he did and began to towel himself off. "But despite being an old trick, you pointed out with what you said that it was still being done in a new way. I would still call that somewhat new, wouldn't you?"

"I guess," Kirito replied. "It's less applying an old trick in a new way that annoys me, but that they call it something completely new."

Harry shrugged. "You know how I am, I'm more concerned that if it works, and I can do it, that's good enough for me," he noted.

"Even with magic?" Kirito asked.

Harry nodded. "I am no scholar," he admitted. "If I'm learning something, I either have to, or I simply find it interesting."

"That would explain how your knowledge can be so… scattered, I guess," Kirito said.

"You mean how I can debate things like some philosophical points at a level higher than I should be able to," Harry pointed out. "Which is true enough. I was a member of my school book club, mostly to get a friend of my arse about studying as I did have a book open. Philosophy, fiction, stories and facts. It was always interesting, though some things were drier than that desert floor in SAO."

Kazuto nodded. "That does have something to do with it, yes," he said. "But you don't strike me as a philosopher."

Harry shrugged. "I'm not one," he admitted. "As I said, it was interesting, but I didn't say it was my thing. However, just because I learned a bit of philosophy, doesn't mean that I am better than anyone else. I've seen some who took to those philosophies, started narrowing their outlooks, and thinking that they were better than us because we didn't share their philosophies. Well, until we managed to shoot them down and deflate their egos." He chuckled. "As Shakespeare once said, there is more out there than can be found in philosophy. I'll take the world as I see it, flaws and all, not as some overly brilliant idiot wants it to be seen, thank you."

Kazuto nodded in response. "By the way, what was that you were telling Asuna 'no' about?" He asked. "It's usually the other way around, you know."

Harry looked at him. "If you didn't get it, then I will wait until she springs it on us," he replied. "Because seeing the look on your face will be so worth it."

 _What did he notice that I didn't?_ Kazuto thought.

##

"So, how long until they have female avatars?" Keiko asked Asuna, catching Nijika's attention.

"However long it takes for me to get things arranged," Asuna replied. "And getting the spare AmuSpheres and Ki- damn it, _Kazuto's,_ permission. It's been months and I still tend to think of you all by your SAO, and now ALO, names."

 _So I'm not the only one,_ NIjika thought. _It's easy with you and Harry, Asuna. You played under your own name, and we used Harry instead of Hadrian because he said we could from the start. We just didn't know it was his real name at the time._ "And you think the rest of us don't?" she asked. "Frankly, I think all of us do on some level. Well, maybe not Harry and Keiko."

"We've known for a few months before the wedding," Keiko admitted. "And we got into the habit of using our real names with each other in private to keep ourselves more or less centered. And _no_ , we weren't up to anything _ecchi_ as well." She stopped and got a thoughtful look. "A kiss every now and then, sharing a room, the bed… Oh, and Rain? Mind. Gutter. _Out_. Same for everyone else. Nothing like, well, _that_ happened before the wedding."

"Oh, we all know that, despite the rumors to the contrary," Nijika said, taking the warning that Keiko was giving by using her online name for what it was. "Rumors you two fed at time, by the way. But no, that wouldn't be like either of you. Both of you would have made sure things were done properly, or as properly as we could manage in SAO, first. _After_ the wedding, on the other hand? That's a different story, even if you two won't confirm or deny anything. We're not stupid. And me and the girls would probably have been fighting over who would be the cool aunt by now if certain things were possible there. Well, maybe not Strea and Yui."

 **Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

Both Yui and Strea started sneezing for no reason, causing Kizmel to blink. "Are you two well?" She asked.

Yui nodded. "We should be, they don't have illnesses here, so we're not getting sick," she said

Strea simply waved it off. "The others are just talking about us," she added.

"Strea that's a baseless superstition and you know it," Yui chided.

"... Yui, think about our 'big sis'. Would she program something like that in-?"

"They're offline," Yui noted drily, with a superior smirk.

"You're no fun."

 **Nerima, Saotome-Tendo Dojo**

"Keiko, don't even bother trying to do your usual games, everyone already has an opinion on that matter," Ranma said. "Also, you almost slipped there. Nothing like that? And what would 'that' be?"

"I wasn't going to," Keiko replied, her face slightly flushed. "And you know exactly what I meant, Grandpa."

"That's about as close as either of them will get to confirming or denying, isn't it?" Hiyori asked in a tone of voice that said just how rhetorical the question was.

" _Anyway_ ," Keiko said, clearly wanting to change the subject in Ranma's eyes. "You seem to be confident that you will get Kazuto to agree, Asuna."

"Not wondering about Harry?" Asuna asked.

"Unlike Kazuto, he's already accepted that you'll do it to him," Keiko replied. "That's why he insisted on you paying for the AmuSphere he will use when playing as a girl. So, how will you persuade Kazuto?"

"I have my ways," Asuna replied confidently.

"I call dibs on being the favorite aunt!" Hiyori called out.

"Hiyori!" Asuna protested.

"Really Asuna?" Nijika asked, shaking her head. "I mean, he does look rather nice, but aren't you moving a bit too fast?"

"It's not- I'm _not_ going to sleep with him!"

Keiko couldn't help it. "But, all she was saying was that she called dibs on being the favorite aunt, Asuna," she said with amusement in her voice. "She could also have been talking about any kids Harry and I have. And Nijika is Nijika, we all know where her mind goes, the gutter."

"What can I say, the drinks there are good," Nijika said.

"That too, Keiko," Hiyori agreed and got a thoughtful expression on her face. "But who would be the mother? You… or Harry?"

"Depends on if I threaten that he will have the next one and make good on that threat," Keiko said. "Though if Asuna _does_ decide on that approach to persuading Kazuto, well, we know how adorable any daughters that could result would be. Just look at Yui."

"You… all of you suck!" Asuna retorted, her face scarlet.

Off to the side, Ranma and his sons stood by and watched the byplay. That Akira and Ko were currently tied up and hanging from the ceiling by their toes didn't change that.

"Dad-"

"When your prank standards involve beyond third year primary, Ko."

"... yes, Father."

If anything, it was tame by their standards.

##

Asuna had just noticed that Keiko's uncles were currently hanging from the ceiling and tied up when Harry walked in.

"Okay, we're back and in our proper genders everyone," he said. He took a look to where Akira and Ko were before turning to Keiko. "And I see your uncles are currently tied up at the moment, which will reassure Kazuto. Or as I might call him sometimes, K-Blade."

"Why call him that?" Keiko asked.

Harry shrugged. "Why not?" He asked. "He was, by far, the best swordsman in SAO, so giving him a Title like that just fits."

"Ah," Keiko replied. "A little lacking in originality, but it's you, Harry, we can look past it."

Harry just shot her a flat look. "Funny, dear," he said sarcastically.

Keiko buffed her fingernails on her shirt. "I try," she said smugly. "Anyway, since I demonstrated the kata, I take it that's what we will all be doing?" She looked at her grandfather for confirmation.

Ranma nodded.

 **April 13, 2025 - Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

Keita sat back after he finished his drink and placed the stein down. Word had it among those who had been in SAO that Harry was less than fond of ALO's beer and he could see why. It tasted more like beer flavored water than anything. Horse piss in other words. Which would have offended the teen.

Hopefully the tea wasn't the same way. Which was unlikely. If the tea was as bad as the beer, then the players would riot.

"Really Keita, beer?" Came Ducker's voice from behind.

Keita turned to see the Imp walking toward him, his usual smile in place.

"Hey Ducker, what's up?" He asked as his friend and guildmate took a seat beside him.

"Not much right now," Ducker replied with a shrug. "My parents are still less than thrilled that I picked up another VRMMO, considering SAO, but I promised that I would keep up with my studies. I'm actually surprised that they didn't raise as much of a fuss as I thought they would."

Keita nodded. "I think all of us are a bit surprised that our families aren't being outright opposed to us playing," he admitted. "Though my parents made sure to emphasize that my continuing to play is contingent on my grades, despite the fact that we basically are guaranteed a High School education from this. No entrance exams for us."

"Tell me about it," Ducker said with a laugh. "I know all of us were going to try for High School, but you know how my grades weren't the best. Chances were I would fail the entrance exam."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that, and don't sell yourself short," Keita said. "You're not stupid, just someone who is not inclined to study more than he needs to. Or think before he acts. I haven't forgotten that incident where we got dragged into that fight. You just wanted to save the girl there, didn't you?"

Ducker snorted. "We're talking about Yuuna there, Keita," he said. "If I thought I had a chance, maybe, but SAO's Bard is a bit out of my reach, don't you think? That, and her hanger on would have likely tried to stab me. Seriously, that guy is almost yandere for her, his fear paralyzing him in a fight notwithstanding."

Keita nodded. It was sheer luck for that group that they had been in the same area, much like it had been luck that Kirito had been there to pull his and his friends' asses out of the fire two years ago. Had Yuuna and her companions not held off on doing that quest until Laughing Coffin had been deal with, he and his group would not have been there as they were busy getting themselves sorted out after their own encounter with those murderers. "That and Sachi would have probably wanted to have words with you if that was the case," he said drily. "Words like 'Smash' and 'Bam' as she beat you within a hit point of your life with her shield and mace."

"There is that, too," Ducker admitted.

Keita snorted in amusement. Before SAO, he would have thought that the often irrepressible Ducker and the ever so studious Sachi wouldn't have become as close as they did. Oh, there would have been friendship, they were friends before SAO after all. But that the two would get closer than that would have been considered absurd.

Then again, all of them were closer friends than they had been before SAO.

"So, I know that Sasamaru is coming online in a bit, but Sachi and Tetsuo said that they might not," Keita said. "Have any idea of what we can do?"

"I heard a Sylph talking to a bunch of others about getting them trained up to do the Grand Quest," Ducker replied. "Apparently, she knows Harry and got him and Lux to help her with it. Also her older brother, and you won't believe who _that_ is."

"Oh?" Keita inquired.

"Apparently she's Kirito's little sister," Ducker replied with a grin.

Keita thought about that and snorted. "Leave it to Kirito to not tell anyone about that," he said. "Not that anyone in Steel Phoenix was exactly open about the real world."

"Neither were we, outside of saying that we were all friends before SAO, and a part of the same school club," Ducker noted.

"And would that stop us from just, you know, happening on them and noting that to him?" Keita asked drily.

"Hell no, it wouldn't," Ducker replied with a grin. "Though you do know that the rest of Steel Phoenix will be there as well. Think they will play along?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Keita replied after a moment. "It depends on how it goes down. As long as it's in good fun, they probably will. They do like to poke fun at each other."

"Not to mention we get to terrify a bunch of ALO scrubs, simply because we can stand being around Steel Phoenix when they get into training mode, right?"

 **Arun Plateau**

Sachi grimaced as she watched Harry negligently bat aside the sword strike with his shield and then use the edge it as a bludgeon on the arm of the Sylph he was sparring against. It was actually fairly restrained for him, given that he could have simply stabbed his sword out and had it resting at the player's throat before she could blink while she was open.

Either method would have proven his point about making assumptions that a shield was only for defense.

"As you can see, if you get the timing right, the shield can be used to parry," he said. "Just as it can be used as a weapon. Do I need to demonstrate further?"

"Now, now, Harry, no need to traumatize her," she said as she walked forward. "I remember you giving me that same lesson when we were in SAO, though I don't use a shield the same way you do."

Harry turned and shot her a grin. "But you also don't cower behind yours," he said. "That's the mistake a lot of tanks make, though with the fact that there are more healing methods in this game, it's less dangerous for them to do that than it was in SAO."

"It also means that they don't need a tank for every party in a raid," Sachi noted.

Harry nodded." True," he said. "So, how have things been, Sachi? And where is the rest of that herd of cats that is your guild?"

Sachi looked to the side, where she saw Keita talking with Asuna, Kirito and Yui. Ducker was showing a smaller Sylph boy a few of his tricks in dagger usage. Sasamaru was off to the side, discussing something with an amused looking Rain. Either he was trying to chat the older girl up and she was simply humoring him, or he was telling her about one of the more amusing incidents they had been through. Silica, Lux and a Spriggan she didn't know where working on teamwork exercises with others.

Tetsuo was with the tanks, with Strea alongside him, probably teaching them a few of his own tricks. The Moonlit Black Cats' tank had learned quite a few tricks from Harry, but he wasn't suited for the highly mobile style, so incorporated those techniques which worked for him, like angling the shield to deflect rather than block. She could see him give one a shove on the shield and send the player sprawling before helping him up and then point at his own legs and feet, saying something that she couldn't quite make out.

"We heard you all were training a bunch of players to take on the Grand Quest and decided to come by and see," she said. "Maybe offer our own tips, as we were Middies in SAO, which seems to be around the skill level of many of the skilled players here."

Harry nodded. "Makes sense," he said and then looked at the Sylph he had subjected to his brand of corrective training. "Actually, Sachi? Can you give this guy and a few others some pointers? The method you developed after having my methods inflicted on you is probably more suited to them than mine is."

"Why would she be better for teaching us than you, Hadrian?" Asked one of the watching Sylphs. A girl who looked far too slight to be deciding to use a shield in a fight, rather than make use of the speed her faction was well known for.

"Because she's a much more defensive fighter than I am, Arisa," Harry replied. "She took what I taught her and developed a method that works for her. Neither of us are tanks, but she's more suited to being a backup tank than I am, which is reflected in our fighting methods. I'm more aggressive, she's more defensive. It tends to have the same result, controlling the fight, but it requires fewer counterintuitive leaps of logic."

"There is also the fact that we are far more survival oriented, rather the end goal oriented," Sachi added. "The main difference between us and frontliners, let alone the Assault Team, is that we are far more cautious when it comes to picking and choosing our battles."

"Hey now, we can be cautious," Harry said in mock protest.

"Your idea of caution is determining on how to best kill a mob you see, not in determining if you actually have to fight it in the first place." Sachi snarked back.

Harry raised his hand as if he was about to say something when he lowered it. "That's a fair cop," he admitted.


	6. Setting Up, Anniversaries and Discussion

Mystic Knight Online: Worlds to Sow

Chapter 6: Setting Up, Anniversaries and Discussions

 **April 14, 2025 - Kamakura, Japan**

Gabriel looked over the offices where he intended to start his operations and nodded to himself. After spending the last two weeks working on setting this up, as well as making sure that it wouldn't cross the Chief of Station's desk at the embassy, or at least made sure that what he was really planning could be masked under a different operation.

There was always something that needed to be done, after all, a truism of intelligence operations if there ever was one. While having to operate semi-openly, as in he was a known and declared intelligence operator, was galling, it also meant that anything he did would have the veneer of an official operation. Adding another layer to obfuscate what he was doing in ensuring that the United States of America's interests, as he saw them, were furthered.

"Sir, it is time for the briefing," came a man's voice from behind.

"Thank you, Zach, I'll be there shortly," Gabriel said without turning around. He had no regard for the man, seeing him only as a means to an end, but maintaining a polite mien helped smooth things over and cost him nothing. To the man's credit, he was sharp enough to notice it and unflappable enough to not let any insult, perceived and real, affect his work ethic.

If the job was within his capabilities, he would do it. If it wasn't, he would mention that someone else may be better suited for it and even offer up names of those he knew for the job. If he still had to do it, he would do his utmost to get it completed satisfactorily and make no excuses if it wasn't up to par.

A professional, in other words. Far too many in the intelligence field allowed political maneuvering and personal interests interfere with accomplishing their duties properly. And Zacharias Richards kept his personal ideologies and beliefs just that, personal. He didn't let them interfere with his duties when he was on the job.

Gabriel needed professionals, even if he eventually decided to not use them in the unofficial and not entirely sanctioned capacities that he intended to use his job for. After all, he had plenty of officially sanctioned work that needed such men and women.

 **Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

"So Harry, how have you been handling the workload so far?" Kizmel heard Asuna ask.

"Asuna, we're only three days into class," Hadrian replied. "It's not so bad right now. Give them a few months. Or weeks, for that matter. By then, I'm pretty sure I will have already been complaining about the workload. And before you ask, I've already finished my assignments. Get it done now and panic less, later. Which, mind you, a friend of mine back in England would be shocked to hear from me, considering how I was often more than willing to just sit on my classwork until the last minute back then."

"And your other courses of study?"

"Still getting me back to where I was," Hadrian said with a sigh. "It's coming along easier since I have prior experience with that material, but Klein and Remus are not going to let me get into new material until I've gotten what I had learned in the past locked down again."

"So it's a lot of repetition of things you already know and refreshing your knowledge?" Silica asked. "Well, that has to suck," she then said when Hadrian nodded.

"But they're right to do so," Hadrian said. "My abilities aren't something to simply practice a bit and then you're fine. Would you say that your grandparents and uncles would be wrong for having you go over the basics again just to make sure that you still have them locked down?"

Silica shook her head. "No," she admitted.

"Excuse me, Hadrian," Kizmel said, speaking up. "But what is it you're studying?"

Hadrian paused for a moment. "Something I can't talk about here," he said. "Silica, Asuna and the others know what it is, and why I can't discuss it. Silica figured it out, as she already knew about what I am being trained in back in our world, and the others were close to figuring it out before I accidentally let it slip." He gave a wry shrug of his shoulders before turning to the tankard in front of him.

"Still trying to find a beer that meets your standards?" Asuna asked with amusement.

"That would be nice, but I'll settle for a beer that actually _tastes_ like beer right now," Hadrian replied with a grumble before grabbing the tankard with his hand inside the handle. "Huh, it's warm. If this is a beer flavored tea, I'm going to find out who designed these drinks and have some pointed words with that person. Well, here goes nothing." He then took a drink and paused for a moment before putting down the tankard and gave it a confused look.

"Harry?" Silica asked.

"There is no way," Hadrian said. "There's just _no way_ they could have known what that tastes like." He flagged over a waitress. "I want three more of this, for the ladies, please." He then looked at Asuna, Silica and Kizmel. "Asuna, Silica, I know that you two aren't beer people, more preferring wines, but I think you will find this interesting. Kizmel, I don't know your preferences, but again, I think you will find it interesting as well."

"I have a preference for wines, myself, but I am no stranger to beer and ale," Kizmel said. "Not my preference, but they aren't too bad." She got a frown on her face. "Well, the ones on Aincrad usually weren't too bad. I've heard enough grumbling from others to avoid the beers and ales here."

"Smart move," Hadrian acceded. "But this one is definitely something you will want to try."

"Harry, there's _good reason_ beer isn't my thing," Asuna pointed out.

"I know that, and this won't change your tune," Hadrian admitted. "But it is something different, something I've tried before. And even many who don't like beer tend to make exceptions for this one."

The waitress came by and put the tankards down in front of Kizmel, Asuna and Silica.

Asuna gave the steaming tankard a skeptical look before turning her attention to Harry. She looked to be debating on something, Kizmel surmised, before she grabbed the tankard by the handle. "Well, you paid for it, so it's not my Yrd that was spent," she said. "But if this isn't to my liking, I know where Ashley works and you're going to be our favorite tailor's dress-up doll."

"Fair enough," Hadrian replied with a nod.

Kizmel and Silica then grabbed their tankards and Kizmel immediately noticed the warmth coming from it. Almost like a mulled wine, heated until it was very warm and with spices, really. She took a cautious sniff and smelled some of the spices used in it, and also something buttery. She looked at everyone and saw Silica giving Hadrian a curious look and then took an experimental sip of it. She let the drink's flavor roll over her tongue.

It was clearly some form of beer or ale, tending toward the latter, but lacked the bitter edge to it. There was a sweetness to the drink, as well as a somewhat creamy taste. As if they had added some butter or milk to the mix while they were heating it. Not enough to overpower or even clash with the taste, but instead worked as a compliment.

She took a deeper pull from the tankard and put it down, to see Silica drawing deeply from hers and Asuna staring at the one in front of her in surprise.

"It's clearly beer, but the taste is different," Asuna mused and got thoughtful before looking at Hadrian. "And this reminds you of something?"

Hadrian nodded. "It does," he replied. "From before we met. Not the same, obviously, but close enough for me to make the comparison." He looked at his tankard before taking another pull from it. "Hmm, not boiled as long, I think, so it would have a higher alcohol content than it would back home. Well, it would if we could get drunk. I asked around and it seems as if you can't get drunk here to the best of what veteran players can tell, not that I'm complaining."

"Klein might," Silica said with amusement, followed by a chirp from Pina.

"It's Klein," Hadrian replied with a scoff. "Anyway, all we need is to wait on Argo to either figure it out or use her usual tricks of bribery and/or blackmail to get it out of anyone who has figured it out."

"I take it that this Klein is a bit notorious, then?" Kizmel asked.

"Famous, infamous, storied, annoying... they all fit as well," Silica replied. "He led the largest guild on Aincrad and they didn't lose a single person."

"Which is a credit to him," Asuna added. "But we know him as the type of person who, well, he's a character."

"...Are we not all playing those?" Kizmel asked, smirking. "Some less so than others?"

"What Asuna means," Hadrian said, smiling and setting down his tankard. "Is that he stands out. Everyone- and I mean _everyone_ \- knew him as 'The Bro'."

"...As in Brother?" Kizmel asked, puzzled.

"In a way," Asuna replied. "There is more to it, of course. Bother, friend, person you know and like who happens to be male, all of those meanings can be summed up in that word."

"I see," Kizmel said. "You humans have an odd way with ascribing meanings outside what they originally meant to words."

She saw Hadrian glance around the inn's tavern before turning his attention back to her. "Please be a bit more discreet when you say things like that, Kizmel," he said in a quiet voice. "Granted, there's enough noise being made that it's unlikely anyone heard you, especially with a normal conversational tone, but we are trying to keep some things from being found out. Anyway, what do you all think?"

"It's… not bad," Asuna admitted. "Still not my thing, but it's not bad at all."

"Definitely not what I was expecting," Silica said. "Sweeter and smoother than what I've noted from your usual beers. Well, the ones in Aincrad that were tolerable, at least. You were good at finding those."

"Beer? Merely Tolerable?" Hadrian said, although his offense seemed to be a sham. Then his eyes narrowed. "You do both like tea, right?"

"Well, yes," Asuna said, and her shock he would ask also seemed to be feigned.

"...Were you leading to a joke about us having to like at least one of beer or tea to be Japanese, dear?" Silica asked, and the edge in her voice was not so much for fun.

"Well, it's the great bridge between my country and yours, Silica," Hadrian said, and then in a just loud enough mutter into his tankard, he added: "Though you seem to prefer baseball to cricket, for some reason."

"Blame the Americans," Silica replied.

"Bloody Yanks. Where's Gus? I'd like to gripe directly."

"Still staying offline," Came Argo's voice from behind Kizmel, causing the former elf to turn in surprise. She did notice that the others seemed to have not reacted.

"How did you-" Kizmel began when Silica put a hand on her arm.

"Kizmel, it's Argo," she said. "She likes to do that."

"That's not how, though..." Kizmel protested.

"Again, it's Argo," Silica noted. "She's just that good at sneaking up on people." She turned to her fellow Cait Sith. "So, what brings you here?"

Argo shrugged. "I noticed you all were online and in town," she replied. "And all of you have a beer in front of you, that's new. Aa-chan doesn't do beer."

"Harry talked me into it," Asuna said. "And he's lucky that I'm finding it to be palatable, or he would be modelling some of Ashley's newest designs."

"Harry," Silica said, with a smirk.

Hadrian raised a hand to summon the server. "Let me get you a mug of it..."

"By the way, where's Kii-bou and the others?" Argo asked while Hadrian ordered.

 **Arun**

Rain just stared as several young players of various factions gathered around Lux, and she could swear that a couple of them were NPCs as well. She could see Yui off to the side smiling at the sight, only for the AI to be beckoned over.

 _I go out to see if there are any good mats I can work for sale, just so I don't have to farm them later, and what do I see?_ She thought.

"Hi- I mean, Lux, it's so easy to forget to not use real names here... It seems she is popular with the children," A woman's voice said from behind her.

Turning, Rain saw an older Sylph woman looking on with a smile. "It's like she has this 'Big Sister' vibe going on with them," she said. "Or maybe a favored aunt. She never showed this off in SAO, though. Then again, she's the nice one of our little group, so it really shouldn't surprise me."

"Oh?" The Sylph asked. "I didn't… oh, wait, I recognize your voice. I'm Lux's mother, we met in the real world, back during New Year's, I believe."

Rain blinked at that. _Wait, Lux's mom plays?_ She thought before thinking it over. _Oh, right, she does. Lux did mention it. Wasn't training her up a bit of the reason for their delay getting here. Well, on top of the Sylph-Cait Sith treaty, at any rate?_

"I'm afraid you have me at a loss, Miss..." Rain said.

"Oh, pardon me, I go by Shrin here," the woman said, flushing a bit. "I don't come online all that much, now that my daughter is in school." She looked at Rain. "And your name… Rain, correct? And why do you think that this shouldn't surprise you? You and your friends certainly spent a lot of time with her."

Rain smiled and nodded. "The one and only," she replied. "And this surprises me _because_ she spent so much time with us. While we didn't avoid being social with people, we also didn't have too many opportunities to interact with the regular SAO players." She looked at Lux surrounded by children.

"I see, a shame," Shrin replied.

Rain shrugged, as if saying it was what it was. "Anyway, she's probably going to be busy for a bit, want me to tell you some amusing stories from our time in SAO?" She asked with a grin. "I remember one from… I think it was about six or so months ago. Well, anyway, we were all taking a break and actually using some public places when what we have all come to call 'The Dusk's Flash Incident' occurred…"

##

Lux paused as she heard her mother laugh and looked to see Rain telling her something and wondered what it was. Knowing the Russo-Japanese girl, it was likely to be some amusing, and embarrassing, story from SAO. Of which all of them had been at the center of at least once.

And hopefully Rain wasn't telling her mother about the Dusk's Flash Incident. She better not be telling that story. Not unless she wanted open season to be declared and her own embarrassing incidents brought to light.

 _I wonder if I can get the others in on that, though they will be bringing up every embarrassing incident of mine and each other in response,_ she thought. _Which would make everyone who wasn't in SAO think we're insane._ She looked around a bit, meeting Yui's eyes at the end and spotting the knowing gleam in them. _Well, more insane than they already think we are. And note to self: see if Yui's somehow telepathic, because I swear she knows what I am thinking._

"Hey, hey, Lux!" One of the boys said, getting her attention. "You said that one of your friends was eaten by a mob?"

Lux chuckled. "Yes, he was," she replied. "He cut his way out of it, so he was fine, if a little smelly. We would have thrown him into a lake to take a bath if one was nearby. If only to wash out the smell, though that wasn't the worst smelling any one of us ended up being."

Yui barked a laugh. "No, that was after that one quest you all did in Alsterin," she said with some amusement before looking at the other children. "It involved a sewer, and the smell followed them out."

Lux shuddered. "Don't remind me, Yui," she said. "That quest… the smell wasn't even the worst part."

"Were you facing mobs made of poop?" Another boy asked.

"Thankfully no," Lux said with a grimace. "Even if it would have been a relief to have something to fight. But a mob made of that?" She shuddered. "That's one of those mobs we would have just went 'nope' and walked the other way. Or we would have whacked it with Harry, given that we were all blaming him for jinxing us into that quest."

"Eew…" All the children replied, their faces screwed up in disgust.

"It was one of those days," Lux said. "Now, you all wanted me to tell you some stories from my time in SAO, right? Well then, why don't I tell you about Harry and Silica's wedding and how it grew into the event it was? I heard that someone actually managed to stream footage of it in here?"

 **Valley of Dragons**

Kirito easily dodged the Gnome's axe and countered with his own slash, scoring a wound of the player's avatar. He ignored the cheering and jeering from the watching audience as he kept his focus on his opponent, watching for the telltale signs that indicated an attack and it's type.

If he were to be honest, he could have ended this much almost as soon as it began. His opponent was slow and relying on brute force to win, no technique or finesse to it. Granted, he was comparing it to his SAO experience, which had far different standards. In SAO, this player would have been a Middy who was firmly in the middle of the pack at best, while here he was actually considered fairly capable. Not an elite player by any stretch, but still competent.

He was seriously tempted to hold a lesson for the entire bunch of ALO players, just to improve their relative quality. _I am now beginning to see why so few groups have managed to finish the Grand Quest now_ , he thought. _Most of them are just not up to the same quality that even a mediocre SAO Player was._

And if he was honest, they were better off for that.

He sidestepped another strike from the axe and ran his sword through the Gnome's shoulder. "I believe that we should call this done," he said.

"Damn, I couldn't even hit you," his opponent groused.

"You telegraph your attacks too much," Kirito replied. "You go for attacks that, while they would do a lot of damage if they hit, are useless if they don't. Against mobs, those attacks are a lot more effective, but against a player who knows better than to tank a hit he doesn't have to, it's less than optimal. I know someone who specializes in using an axe. Go to the Sword's Rest Tavern and look for a Gnome named Agil. Ask him for some tips."

The Gnome looked confused for a moment before giving a skeptical nod, not that Kirito could blame him. While it wasn't as bad as it was in MMOs before SAO, ALO still had players intentionally distributing information that was either missing key bits, erroneous, or flat out lies.

The kind of Troll behavior designed to catch newbies out and humiliate the overconfident, really.

A crash caused him to turn his attention to another mock duel going on and he watched as Strea got up from the small crater she obviously created from a hard landing with a cheerful grin.

"Not bad!" The AI called out cheerfully. "That makes it what this month? Two for you when compared to my seven? You're getting better!"

"Still means I got my ass kicked by you seven times already this month," a Salamander said as he descended, resting a flamberge over his right shoulder.

"Which is still less often than what you ended up with by the same time last month, Dai," a different Salamander called out. "I think she was even trying a little this time!"

"Kiss my ass, Ren," Dai replied. "If she tried even a little, that means I might actually be getting better at using this oversized knife, rather than using a lance. Which, mind you, she doesn't need a weapon to kick any of our asses if we're using."

"Oh, I remember that," the Gnome he had been fighting said with a chuckle. "She caught both of their lances by their heads when they tried to stab her and threw to two into the same boulder. Apparently she heard about a Sylph doing the same thing during a botched ambush a while back and decided to repeat it."

"It wouldn't have been in the Ancient Forest, would it?" Kirito asked idly. "Because if it was, I know the Sylph who did it."

"Oh, know him IRL or some other game?" the Gnome asked.

"Yes," Kirito replied, not offering any more information.

 **Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

"Oh, they're off and doing their own thing," Harry said and then smirked at Argo. "It's not like we do _everything_ together."

"Only most things," Asuna added.

 **April 15, 2025 - Nishitokyo, SAO Survivor School**

Keiko sighed in relief as they left the school. "You know, I would normally be able to tolerate some subjects, but they really, _really,_ need to work on the English curriculum and how it's taught." She said.

"Tell me about it," Harry grumbled. "While the grammar instruction was more or less spot on, if I get corrected about splitting an infinitive one more time…"

""Isn't that a rule of English?" Asuna asked. "Because I think I've heard that rule in the past."

"If by 'rule', you mean a completely made up rule by grammarians who had delusions of intellect, adequacy, and relevance, then yes," Harry said. "If I were a bit better with proper Japanese, I would send a note to MEXT about them needing to revise their guidelines. Teaching rules that few native speakers follow, particularly when speaking, but do exist, even correcting me on them? That's fine. They are actual rules, even when most don't give a damn about them. But to insist on…" he sneered. "Rules that were made up? Thanks, but no."

"A bit of a sore point, I take it?" Kazuto asked.

Harry shrugged. "I wouldn't say it's a sore point," he said. "It's more… how do I put it? It's more that we tend to take rules and look at them as guidelines. Writing is a lot more structured, but that's writing. The spoken language is… well, the general rule of thumb is, if you can be understood clearly, then it works. I know they're trying to teach it to students who never experienced the language the way a native would. I bet that if I learned Japanese more in a classroom back in England, instead of getting the language shoved into my head and then SAO, where I had to learn the rules as I went along… it would probably be a lot more, ah, _correct_. On the surface at least. I bet you all would have a laugh at how I was speaking"

"Not to your face," Nijika noted. "This is Japan, where we take politeness so seriously you don't know if you've been insulted or not."

"Not like a barbarian like Harry would know," Hiyori added.

"Hiyori, you wound me," Harry replied. "I'm just a hapless, poor, and innocent _gaijin_. Why, you took away the skulls I use as drinking cups, the necklaces of beads I use to protect my virtue, and the sheep entrails so I can properly divine the correct answers to any questions I may be asked." He gave a dramatic sigh. "You were polite about it but... Civilized, the lot of you. What is a proper savage and barbarian to do?"

They all shared a laugh.

"Okay, you're all laughing, what did I miss?" Kazuto asked as he walked up.

"Only us talking smack about you behind your back," Keiko replied.

"Like we all do when it's one of us who isn't here, as it should be," Kazuto said with a nod. "All of us have incidents under our belts that we joyfully hold over each other's heads."

"Better to take the piss out of ourselves," Harry noted. "Though none of us have managed to top what Klein roped Kazuto and I into on our own."

"And the only reason none of us topped that is because none of us were drunk," Nijika said.

"Nijika," Asuna said. "We didn't _need_ to be drunk, or do I need to remind you of the Drill Our Own Shortcut Incident?"

Nijika flushed. "Asuna!" She protested. "We promised not to talk about that!"

"No, _you_ promised, I didn't promise anything," Asuna said in a smug tone.

"Well, if that's going to be the game, how about I-"

"Ladies, we're not on the school's grounds and people are starting to stare," Harry said.

Asuna blinked and composed herself. "Is it odd I have to think about that to care?" She murmured.

"We rock the boat enough as it is," Kazuto replied quietly. "No need to 'prove' to people that we don't fit in, even when it may be true. Anyway, we have to head to the dojo, right?"

"We do," Asuna said. "And I hope that it won't be like it was a couple of days ago, my mother wants me to get started with the tutors on a couple of subjects."

They continued walking toward the subway station and Keiko very carefully didn't pay attention to the one person who kept his attention on them as they walked by. Or the one who seemed to melt into the crowd at the bus pulled up to the stop as they passed it by. Or the one that was quietly shadowing them. Neither did the others.

But they were aware and Harry was already making a call.

 **Kamakura**

Gabriel looked over the report that one of his people picked up from a dead drop location that he was fairly confident that the PSIA didn't yet know about. Not completely sure, Japan's domestic counter-intelligence agency was good at what it did, but there had been no indication yet that they were aware of it.

Though even if they were aware of the dead drop, or even had an idea of the contents of the report, it wouldn't be something that would trip their radar. Well, no more than the fact that such a report was placed at a dead drop, at any rate.

Any report detailing observations on SAO Survivors was likely to raise a few eyebrows, but he was sure that various intelligence agencies around the globe were paying some attention to that group, if only because many of them would think that they would be prime recruiting material for the JSDF.

 _The Chinks and the Gooks would certainly think that,_ he thought. _If only because they would naturally suspect anything involving Japan and it wasn't any real secret that the government helped defray that costs of developing the Nerve Gear. I'm surprised that its development hasn't raised more of a stink internationally outside of the embarrassment of the incident with SAO._

Full-Dive Technology's potential military applications were easy for him to surmise, despite the current limitations of the technology. And while Japan has no stated intent to use the technology in such a way, the other nations in the region are unlikely to believe that is the case or would remain so for long. Japan was one of the top spenders for defense in the world for a reason, despite their being very careful to not spend any of that money in developing strategic weapons platforms.

But then, Japan had left deep scars in this part of the world, and it refused to forget or forgive, even as realpolitik dictated that there was nothing wrong in the background.

He put those thoughts to the side and went over the report again. While it wasn't precisely necessary for him to have the ones detailed in the report observed, this group of survivors was worth paying attention to simply because they had ended SAO in such a remarkable fashion.

The report mostly concentrated on how they seemed to be acting more like a set of youths within their own age groups, or at least trying to, but the observers all seemed to agree that some of the acting more like their ages seemed forced in some ways. As if they were soldiers who have recently returned from a war, rather than a bunch of kids who have been through a more mundane, if still harrowing, experience.

Interesting, but irrelevant. Observing them was more a passing interest, as some of them did bear watching, if only to ensure that they didn't stumble on anything he was involved in.

And, perhaps, to utilize them as well.

All in the United States' interests. Whether they saw what he was planning as such or not was immaterial. He didn't go through the trouble of arranging to set up operations in Japan for no reason.

Now, what was next on his list of things to do? Personnel?

 **Nerima, Potter-Black Apartment**

Harry looked his reflection over, taking in his clothing, a simple dressy shirt and pants and went over his plans for the night. He would go to Keiko's place, take her out to dinner, the two would probably walk around the shopping district and some more meandering and wandering. In other words, much like how their outings in SAO had gone, if without the two of them returning home to their shared room, bathing, Pina alighting on her perch and preening her feathers, and anything that would come after that.

And on that thought, he was again reminded as to why he seriously didn't like the current status of their relationship due to the laws, for all that it was necessary right now.

"You know, I'm pretty sure that most boys your age would be more nervous about going on a date before they left, rather than showing some borderline frustration," Sirius said idly to Harry.

Harry turned to his godfather. "Most boys my age aren't married in all but name due to some legality issues," he said dryly.

Sirius looked thoughtful.

"If you're that backed up, I'm sure the Shiba's head of household has one of his many medicines..."

Sirius smirked. "It's not that. It's just... you remind me of your parents more sometimes than others." At Harry's raised eyebrows, he shrugged. "The first war with Moldyshorts _was_ on when they married, after all..."

 **Nerima Streets**

Jiromaru watched the pair of kids that he had been trailing walk down the street without a care in the world and sneered. They looked like any pair of kids he had seen coming out of that school, if a slight bit more robust than their companions. Just students, not the pair that had stopped his sister's fun in SAO and put her in what passed for jail there and the prospect of confronting frightened her to this day.

 _Damn it, Daisuke, you got caught in that mess as well, you should have been able to keep that from happening!_ He thought with irritation. His friend should have been able to intimidate anyone into backing down, and if not, roughing them up enough to make them do what he and his group wanted them to do.

And it seemed to work, until her group drew the attention of those who wanted to put a stop to his sister and her group's actions. It wasn't as if anyone got hurt or killed by it, only scared and roughed up a little. There was no reason to basically arrest her, throw her in a jail cell, and leave her there for several months until she was allowed to leave it, albeit under heavy supervision and not allowed out of the place where the entire incident began.

Which was a far sight better than what the others had to deal with, they didn't see the outside of those cells until the last day, right in time to watch seven players confront and kill Kayaba, freeing everyone.

This was all information he only truly learned after the fact. Yes, he watched the streams, somewhat, but not often. What was the point? He never got a call that his sister had suddenly died and he had better and more important things to do.

 _If they hadn't stepped on Karyu in getting there, I would leave them alone,_ he thought. _But they had. I don't care if she said that they should be left alone, that was there, this is here, and no one,_ no one _, gets in my family's way!_

##

"Harry…" Keiko said.

"Yeah, he's still following," Harry replied, looking down at her and taking in the blouse and long blue skirt she was wearing, while glancing out the corner of his eye. "Continue on or confront?"

"Let's just keep going, he might not be here for us and may just be wandering around," Keiko noted, though the tone of her voice made it clear that she doubted that. They had been tailed by this one since the Nekohanten.

Granted, he was doing a decent enough job in blending in, and made sure to not approach too closely, but that was part of the problem. The two of them had noticed that they were being followed by someone who wasn't among their normal minders almost immediately. While neither would claim to know who everyone watching and trailing them were on a personal level, they knew who most of their unofficially official minders were on sight.

Hearing a slight growl, he looked at Keiko and smirked. "Hungry again?" He asked.

"I'm a growing girl, Harry," Keiko replied. A second growl had her smirking at him. "And it's not like you would complain about a bit more food."

"Fair point," Harry admitted as he looked around and spotted a familiar sushi cart. "In the mind for a light sushi snack before continuing on? Mr. Umemori does a good job. Why, it happens to be just as good as Klein's luck with the ladies is bad."

"From a simple _yattai_?" Keiko asked. "That takes skill. Well then, let me try some of it. The more official places around here are good enough, but if he can make good sushi and cut some quality sashimi from a simple cart, I might want to see if Aunt Nabiki can help finance him setting up a more permanent location."

"Ah, but from what I learned from him, he likes using the cart and moving around. Different customers, different tastes. Why, I remember him telling me about this one customer he often runs into in Chiyoda loves ordering inarizushi from him. And I've tried his rice. You and Asuna were right on how the rice makes the dish, dear."

"Now the question is, is the food he makes at least nearly as good as what Asuna makes?" Keiko wondered. "Remember when she brought and shared that overly large bento to training a few days ago?"

Harry nodded. Asuna had brought quite the bit of food for them to enjoy after the physical evaluation of their capabilities. He was both surprised and impressed that her skill with preparing food was, while not as good as it was in SAO, was still better than one would assume for a girl her age.

Then again, once they had cooled down and showered from all the exertion, they fell on the food like a pack of starving wolves. Or teenagers, to be more accurate. With all the lack of table manners, by their standards- Asuna had managed to keep them somewhat civilized- that implied.

There had been a lot of pointed looks from Keiko's grandmother to her grandfather and uncles in that moment, and much puzzled "what"ing in return.

The two smoothly moved over to the cart.

"Welcome, Mr. Potter!" Genta said as he saw Harry approach the cart. "Out for a light snack with the young Mrs.?"

"We're in your care, Mr. Umemori," Harry replied, not missing his choice of terms but not wanting to encourage him. Honestly, it was hard to tell who the bigger ham was. The sushi chef or the kabuki actor? Harry was tempted to see how well they went with cheese and determine if they could approach the levels of Sir Brian Blessed.

"Everything Harry has told me says we can trust you with such," Keiko agreed.

"I should hope so!" Genta said theatrically. His eyes darted briefly behind them and then met Harry's, eyebrows raised. Harry nodded slightly.

Let their tail join them. Better to play it out with one of Japan's own demon hunters backing them.

##

Jiromaru didn't know what made him take a seat at the sushi cart. Yes, the pair he was following had stopped at it, but he could have continued on and doubled back after a few minutes. He had seen enough movies to know that staying too close to someone being tailed, or hanging around for that matter, was only an invitation to be spotted.

There was the gut feeling the game was already up in that case to consider, of course. _Nah, it couldn't be_ , he thought. _There is no way that any skills they may have picked up there came out with them._

He looked over the menu and decided on an order, noting that the two were already focused on eating when the cart's proprietor was seemingly bumped from behind and seemed to lose control of his knife, sending it flying in a high arc toward the two. He watched the boy just snap his left hand out and catch it by the hilt, flip it in his hand, and hand it back to the sushi chef. All without looking.

 _What the hell?!_ He thought in shock. _How did-_

"Many apologies for my clumsiness," the proprietor said in a contrite manner.

"Hmm?" The boy queried. "Oh, right, the knife. No harm done, so don't concern yourself over it."

Jiromaru began to rethink the wisdom of tailing the pair in order to do something to them to square the books in his mind for their ruining his sister's fun in SAO. Now? He was beginning to understand why his sister said that people both admired and feared those who had been the ones to end it.

"Excuse me," he began, licking his lips. "I don't mean to pry, but I thought I recognized you and wanted to ask... my sister was in SAO. Where you as well?"

The boy gave him a calm look. "Yes, both of us were," he said in a neutral tone.

"That... Steel Phoenix, was it?" Jiromaru pressed. He was fighting himself to stay calm. He generally had too modest, too polite or too relaxed. This was in an odd place, blunter than he could get away with even with his fellows, but still delicately toned.

The boy nodded. "We were among that group," he said. "Why do you ask?"

Jiromaru sighed. "I think... you ran into my sister in there. And as a brother... part of me wants to deck you. But... I'd like your side of it. She... doesn't go into much detail. I know what I saw on the streams, but I didn't watch close. I... couldn't do anything for her from here."

"We crossed paths with a lot of people in there," the girl... no, this was a young man and woman here. She didn't look up from her meal, sipping miso after cleansing her palette with some radish mixed with soy.

"She went by Rosalia," Jiromaru admitted.

The young man sighed, setting down his chopsticks. "That... that was not fun for us. I'm... a bit sensitive about people acting like the worst possibility is impossible. I'm someone who barely survived that, lost my family to the worst case."

Jiromaru met his eyes, and slowly nodded. "Gimmie your side."

 **Alfheim, Arun**

Asuna bit back a growl as she watched a Gnome act like a complete asshole to a group of kids and restrained her desire to go over and throttle him. The main reason was that Yui was there and simply staring him down, the white knuckled grip on the haft of her spear showing just how irritated with him she was. She was liable to stab the idiot at any moment, despite the fact that Arun was a safe area and it wouldn't do anything outside of giving the youngest seeming, but the oldest in fact, AI of their group some catharsis as she beat the idiot like a drum until her morale improved.

The second reason was Strea and Lux walking, more like stomping in the case of the former, over with thunderous expressions on their faces.

"I am surprised you aren't walking over yourself," Kizmel said at her side.

"There is no need," Kirito said with a snort. "Those two will more than suffice in voicing our collective displeasure."

"Well, more Strea," Rain opined. "Lux is likely to check over the kids and make sure they're okay. You should have seen her yesterday, when a bunch of younger players and I'm sure some NPCs just gravitated to her. Then again, with the way that ass is acting… she's probably got a few cutting comments ready."

Kizmel gave them a curious look.

 **Nerima Streets**

Jiromaru stared at Harry Potter, who his sister had known as Hadrian inside SAO, as he began to wind down his side of the story.

"Again, I am not proud at how I played a role in escalating that encounter," Harry said, taking a sip of his tea as he looked over the remaining sushi in front of him. "I could have gone about it differently, maybe been a little less provocative in how I spoke, or less confrontational. Hell, I could have made it clear to her that she was biting off more than she and her friends could chew right from the start. She didn't believe that Kayaba was being honest about the whole dying in the game means you die in reality. But even so, she was gradually escalating things and it would have resulted in someone dying at the hands of her and her group."

"And I bet she is probably happy that we stopped her before she could escalate that far, now that she's out of SAO and knows that Kayaba was telling the truth," Silica, or at least that's what she had been known as in SAO, said. "Even if she won't say as much." Her face had an expression that made her seem a decade or two older than her teens for a moment before it cleared.

Jiromaru blinked and then remembered that the pair of youths at the sushi stand had knowinglykilled others in SAO. Looking at them more carefully, he noticed that the two of them carried themselves in a way that would be out of place in two teenagers. There was none of the cocksure confidence telling the world to give them its best shot. None of the surety of belief in bad things only happening to other people, not them.

It was the quiet confidence and self-assuredness of those who had already faced challenges and hardships, and not been worn down or broken from their experiences.

What they had said, which they explicitly mentioned was from their perspective, did tie up with some of what Karyu had said about her encounter with them. That they had intentionally baited her into targeting them, playing on their youth to sell it. While there were clear differences, their perspective painted Karyu in a worse light than his sister painted herself in, it also didn't contradict what she had told him.

"Okay, stop that," Harry said.

"Stop what?" Jiromaru asked in confusion.

"Stop trying to read between the lines to see what may be there," Harry replied. "You'll only get lost on the page and miss the story. I'm fairly sure that what we told you painted your sister in a worse light than how she painted herself to you. That's expected. Different tellers, different viewpoints." Harry made a motion to check the time on his phone and turned to his companion. "Well, I think it's about time for us to get moving, dear." He said before turning to Jiromaru and gave him a nod as the two got up from their seats and began to walk off.

Jiromaru looked over what he had found himself ordering without even noticing, the conversation he just had, had been quite distracting. Taking a bite, he began to eat the prepared fish and rice eagerly. It was quite good and the rice was definitely better than what would be expected from a simple _yattai_.

Despite things, he realized that he had to talk with Karyu. He may have missed some details when she first talked with him about the incident, and he wondered what her reaction would be when he told her that he had run into certain people.

 **April 17, 2025 - Chiyoda, Nihon University Hospital**

Shino sat down in one of the available seats as she waited for her counseling appointment, not that she expected anything but more of the same that she had dealt with since she had been eleven. Why should she? Despite the apparently neutral demeanor of her previous counselor, that hadn't stopped him from giving her judging and condemning looks, or not condemning her with his own words for her killing a man.

As if she didn't condemn herself enough for it.

The door to the psychologist's office opened, catching Shino's attention. "I will be seeing you again next week, Miss Karatachi and we can continue with how you coped with the aftermath of those unfortunate incidents within SAO," came a woman's voice.

"Thank you for your time, Dr. Ikuda," came another woman's voice and Shino watched as a high schooler exited, or at least someone wearing a school uniform. Where did she see the crest on the uniform's jacket again? Wait, didn't the counselor say that the girl an SAO survivor?

She gave the woman a more careful look. Late teens, college age, wearing a high school uniform. She couldn't tell the school by the uniform, but the conversation indicated that she was a student at the school set up for the SAO Survivors. Brown hair and of above average height, but not overly tall. Semi-alert but not wary posture. Aware of her surroundings and subtly turning to glance at her out of the corner of her eye.

"Dr. Ikuda, I believe your next appointment has arrived," The woman said dryly.

Shino blinked. That was new. She was used to being ignored by people, beneath notice, which she preferred to the alternative.

Because if someone noticed her presence, the harsh looks and the silent condemnation would start. She had long since given up on hoping that someone who found out about what she did those three years and change ago would do any different.


	7. On a Comparison of Skills

Mystic Knight Online: Worlds to Sow

Chapter 7: On a Comparison of Skills

 **April 20, 2025 - Shiba Compound**

Harry sidestepped the spell and sent an _Expelliramus_ back at Mizore, his opponent for this test of his abilities. The kitsune easily blocked the spell, not even saying it out loud as she snapped her wand out and sent a stunner at him.

" _Protego,_ " he cast quietly, deflecting the spell away from him and retaliating with a stunner of his own.

Mizore almost negligently deflected it with a flick of her wand and retaliated quickly, sending stunners and jinxes his way, forcing him to shield, dodge or give ground towards the edge of the boundary that marked the dueling area to avoid getting hit and losing outright.

Not that his losing wasn't basically assured as it was. With his attacking options restricted to magic, not that he could have taken advantage of a more physical way to win as it was, save for losing faster, he was far more limited in how he could respond. But then, the entire point wasn't to _win_ , though that was desirable. It was to last as long as he could.

A test of endurance, rather than of casting knowledge. Professor Lupin quickly realized what Tsuboi-sensei already knew. Harry's mindset when it came to learning something was heavily focused on the practical uses and utility of a spell, rather than the theoretical. Oh, he could happily devour the theory behind something, especially when the subject matter interested him, but he was always more focused on what he was learning that was in his ability to do right now, rather than what he could potentially do with it down the line.

Master what he already knew _now_ and build on it when he could, in other words. SAO had reinforced that trait, given that his preferred methods of battle tended towards excelling at a few things, and being competent at more aspects which supplemented his skills, rather than learning everything he could about his chosen tools.

Not that he didn't go further than that, he wouldn't have been a member of the Assault Team otherwise. But that merely made him one among a group where being an excellent fighter was the norm.

Besides, that was in his virtual form. Like flying with a broom granted him a whole new set of options. In SAO, his strength, speed and endurance were (in comparison to the real world) borderline superhuman and could generally compensate for his weaknesses. Those capabilities followed him to ALO because the 'worlds' were similar enough. Out in the real world, however, he was far less physically capable and would be lucky to gain the physical capability of a Middy. If he dedicated several years of his life to the physical training necessary to reach even that.

While he wasn't averse to hard work, he already knew that he would have other priorities for the next several years. Such as finishing school, his magical training, and starting a family with Keiko shortly after the first two were complete. Well, if they were allowed to hold the latter off until they had completed the first two. It wouldn't surprise him if both he and Keiko were, both subtly and blatantly, pressured into doing so as soon as they were both seventeen and thus past their majorities in England's magical community.

He would have to talk to Sirius about that to find out if such was frowned on. He and Keiko would have children in their own time, thank you.

He dodged a spell and turned his attention back to Mizore. Just because he still had his instincts and a form of SA out here didn't mean he could afford to take his attention off his opponent.

Harry's eyes widened as Mizore seemed to disappear and ducked the spell that came from behind. Sending his own in the direction it came from, he quickly rose and turned to face her and got hit in the arse by a stinging hex before he was even halfway done with his turn.

"Well, I'd say that the win is yours," Harry said dryly as Mizore appeared off to the side.

"Don't sell yourself short," Mizore replied. "Even with the skill difference, your instincts and reflexes are as sharp as ever and most people with three times the magical education you have been taken out a lot quicker."

"How often was that you?" Harry asked.

"Taking them down quickly or being taken down quickly? Mizore asked.

"Yes."

Mizore simply smirked in reply, her fox ears twitching with the clear implication that she usually took the ones more experienced than her down, though Harry knew better than to assume so. Oh, such an assumption would likely have a strong element of truth to it, but he knew the kitsune well enough that she would want him to draw that conclusion whether it was correct or not.

"You two done with your flirting?" Ryotaro asked dryly.

"I believe that's your thing, Tsuboi-sensei," Harry retorted in an equally dry tone.

Ryotaro chucked.

"Are you two done or should I leave you both to your bromance?" Mizore asked. "Maybe I should call Keiko and tell her."

"She would want you to record a video of it since she's not here to watch," Harry replied, causing the kitsune to laugh.

 **April 26, 2025 - Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

"Man, I'm glad we got the homework knocked out so quickly," Rain said as they walked down the Yggdrasil City's main boulevard.

Lux nodded, understanding her friend's happy mood. Homework could sometimes be something that was taken care of quickly, or it could sometimes take all afternoon, even with everyone helping in areas they were strong in. "It helps that we have one person who is a native speaker of English and another who is fluent in it," she noted. "And we shouldn't forget that Kirito was very helpful with the math and science parts. I know that Harry was thankful."

Rain laughed. "He would be, considering that it meant that he could get his homework done and not take all night," she said. "At least he simply asked Kirito to explain what he's not getting, instead of trying to copy answers or get him to do the work for him."

"Asuna would string me up by my own guts if I tried," Harry said, walking up. "It's one thing to get help on something, so long as the work is still yours, though. At least with math, once I know how something's done, I can work my way through the problems. Anyway, let's not talk about homework, we're done with it for today and I don't want to think about it."

Lux nodded her assent to that line of thought. She would admit, the homework wasn't all that bad in comparison to her memories of how it could be, and probably will be getting over the next few months, but right now, she wanted to do something else.

Like finding a quest that would serve as a way for them to decompress from the study and homework. Like maybe seeking out and battling mobs.

She then heard a snort from behind and turned to look at Asuna.

"Sorry," Asuna said. "It's just that I have this funny feeling that we are all looking for a quest more along the lines of what we did in Aincrad."

"You mean, grab quest, go out, seek mobs out, find mobs, and use Aincrad's patented violence to deal with them?" Silica asked dryly.

"I wouldn't have put it in those words, but yes," Asuna admitted after a moment's pause. "Though perhaps we should start looking for quests that don't require violence for once." She then gave them a look that all were familiar with. The one she tended to give them that was a warning that she was about to go into Princess Mode if things didn't go as she recommended.

Fun to watch when someone was on the receiving end of it, not so much fun when that someone was you. Actually rather painful to see thwarted, since then Asuna got embarrassed she brought it out when not needed.

"Yes ma'am," they all agreed.

"You know, I just noticed this, but where did Kirito walk off to?" Rain asked.

"He said he needed to talk with CARDINAL about something," Asuna said.

##

CARDINAL raised an eyebrow as Kirito explained what he was doing with the World Seed. "So, you are going over the World Seed's code yourself right now?" She asked.

Kirito nodded. "As far as I can," he admitted. "Right now, I am just looking it over to see if any aspects of it leap out to me as something that could be potentially problematic. I have a fair knowledge of programming, enough to spot more obvious problems at least, and more often than not, I can see sections of code that may need a more in depth look that I can copy and paste online to get the opinions of experts."

"And your opinions?" CARDINAL asked. She knew the code better than anyone, having gone over it in detail herself and had the benefit and curse of perfect recall. Well, perfect recall of any data that was within her mind, so to speak. Being digital, her ability to recall information was limited only by the storage space available.

She had reassured all members of Steel Phoenix that there wasn't anything hidden within the World Seed and meant it, she had made sure that was the case. Not only would Kayaba, her creator and the closest thing she had to a father, have wanted to ensure that the methods he used to trap ten thousand people within Sword Art Online could not be used again, but the Nerve Gear's own firmware was quickly patched by Argus after it began. Plus, the entire system was replaced as soon as a viable alternative system became available.

But she wasn't going to dismiss any concerns that they had, either. Steel Phoenix, among others, had shown that they could take a system and utilize it in ways that its creators never intended or expected, if not outright surpass the system mandated digital existence they lived.

"While I haven't looked over all the source code," Kirito said. "There's enough there that it would take me days, not counting the need to eat and sleep, to look over on myself, I haven't noticed anything amiss. Even so, I would want a… second set of eyes to look it over, if you understand what I mean."

CARDINAL nodded. "Trust, but verify, as you would put it," she said. "That is reasonable. You have no reason to trust it, even though you all have your own reasons to want to make use of it. Providing Yui, Strea and Kizmel a location they can log in from, though you would have to tie in AmuSphere MAC addresses to do so properly."

"You as well, CARDINAL," Kirito said and raised his hand when she was about to reply. "You're as much a foreign data entity here as they are and are just as susceptible to the same things that give us a reason to set it up for them. I won't ask how you have managed to ensure that their continued and constant presence isn't noticed, you probably worked something out with your counterpart here and-"

"I did work something out with Freyja," CARDINAL admitted. "I was in contact with her before Sword Art Online ended, setting all this up. I knew that Kayaba planned for Sword Art Online to be deleted, like some Wagnerian magnum opus, once done, never to be done again. Of course, the servers weren't completely erased, the data is still there. I have to give the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defense credit, as well as the work of Takeru Higa and Tetsuhiro Shigemura. They manage to salvage more than expected."

Kirito gave her a searching look. "How much?"

"They managed to salvage the logs," CARDINAL said. "I give them credit for that, even if most of the work was Higa and Shigemura's." _Which is fitting,_ she thought. _Higa was a student alongside Kayaba under Professor Shigemura as well. And it is probably fortunate that Professor Shigemura's daughter was saved by a group you and your friends trained._ She didn't voice those thoughts, though.

Kirito nodded. "Shigemura, he was the one who taught Kayaba at Touto," he noted. "Thus he would know Kayaba's fingerprint, as it were, and be able to know how to get around his intent to delete SAO to some extent."

"Higa as well," CARDINAL acknowledged. "It makes me wonder at times what would have occurred if my creator had worked with them on Sword Art Online. For a few process cycles, that is. Still, there is no chance for another Sword Art Online to happen. Kayaba would agree that one was enough. The Beta Servers could be mined to recreate Aincrad, but it still wouldn't be Sword Art Online as it was. They lack certain elements of code and command processes that made it what it was and the hardware to make it so is no longer on the market."

Kirito nodded. "The AmuSphere does not interact with our brains the same way and shouldn't have the capability to kill us."

"Shouldn't?" CARDINAL asked.

"None of us think that there isn't a way," Kirito said. "The AmuSphere has numerous safeties in it, but those safeties can fail. It's a remote possibility, but it's still a possibility. We actually mentioned that to Shouzou Yuuki, the CEO of RECT, and noted that while the official literature claims it's impossible, we aren't going to take it on absolute faith."

"And yet, you're here, playing Alfheim Online," CARDINAL noted.

Kirito shrugged. "After surviving SAO and how many times we all came close to dying if we made a mistake or our luck ran out, a possibility of actually dying isn't nearly as frightening as the certainty of it," he replied.

##

"He will catch up with us once he's done," Asuna assured them.

The others nodded and continued walking when they spotted Strea heading toward them. Nothing unusual there, the fact that she had a different player with her than either Yui or Kizmel, however, was new.

The player accompanying the AI was an Imp, and one they recognized.

"Didn't we see her on the day the Grand Quest was opened?" Silica asked. "You know, that group that Leafa and Klein joined in on to finish it?" 

"I think she might be," Asuna replied. "I can't remember her name, though." She looked at everyone else, who simply shrugged.

"I wonder what she wants," Harry said.

"Well, she's with Strea," Silica noted. "And what's Strea's reputation here in ALO again?"

Asuna snorted. Strea's love of a good fight and her tendency to participate in informal PvP matches, or start general brawls, was well known to them. In fact, her tendency to search a fight out has begun to lead to a moniker within ALO: The Twilight Berserker.

 _And given Strea's well known love of a good fight, I can think why this Imp is with her,_ Asuna thought. _She must have impressed her or is looking to challenge her, and probably us, as well._

Which made her thoughts pause for a bit. It was no secret among the ALO players that she and the others were SAO Survivors. Not bandied about, but no secret, either. The result was an intimidating reputation among the general ALO player base.

"...I don't see that person you told me about Strea…" The Imp said in a tone that implied that she was complaining. "You told me that you know someone who was _better_ than me. No one is better than me!"

Strea rolled her eyes. "Be patient, Yuuki, I just heard Asuna say that he's busy. He'll come find us when he's finished with whatever he is doing."

"So, Strea, care to introduce your friend?" Harry asked. "And maybe explain why she's looking for Kirito?"

##

Yuuki looked at the group of players that Strea had led her to, slightly miffed that the one she was looking for wasn't there. Strea had talked about Kirito's skills and she wanted to see them for herself. She already knew he was good, just as the others in front of her were. They were the Heroes of Aincrad, the ones who ended SAO, not to mention being the ones who finished the Grand Quest before her group.

But knowing and seeing are two different things.

"Oh, this is Yuuki!" Strea said cheerfully. "She was in that group that Leafa and Klein finished the Grand Quest with. You know, the ones who were right behind us."

"Ah, so that's her name," the Sylph, Hadrian, said. Yuuki remembered him. He was the one who thoroughly chewed out that other Sylph and managed to give off an aura of menace and impending violence for all that he had been calm on the surface. "So, you're looking for Kirito?"

Yuuki looked him in the eye. "Yes," she replied. "I heard from Strea here that he's a better fighter than me."

"Confident in your skills, aren't you?" Hadrian asked.

"I haven't yet found a fighter better than I am," Yuuki said proudly.

Hadrian gave her a searching look before turning to the Undine. "Asuna, inform Kirito that he should meet us all at the sparring rings," he said before turning back to Yuuki. "Ms. Yuuki, if you want to challenge Kirito, he can meet with us there. Also, I'm up for a good spar."

Yuuki looked at him and smirked. "You'll lose, you know," she said confidently.

Hadrian returned her smirk. "That is yet to be determined," he replied. "And even if I do lose, it sounds like fun."

 **Shiba Compound**

Luke followed the silent servant who was guiding him to where his stepson was. It had been months since SAO ended, but it was only now that he had the time to come to Japan so that he could debrief the young man about what went on there. Knowing that August's exploits had been watched by Ami and others was one thing, but they hadn't been recorded so that his actions could be reviewed.

Receiving word on what August did in that damned game was no substitute for footage or being able to get the information directly. There had been damn few opportunities for the former, and his being here was for the latter.

Well, that and catching up with his stepson and visiting his granddaughter once it was all done with. Eden was still busy ensuring that everything would be managed back home before she visited Japan, so it would be a few more days until she came by.

 _Hm, maybe I should also arrange to meet with Lupin as well,_ he thought. _Get a perspective on his interactions with Potter, who went through it too._

 **Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

Kirito reached the sparring circles just in time to see Harry get sent flying from one and land in a heap right outside the ring. He noticed the Imp still in the ring sheathe her sword as she backed away from where she was.

"Nice one, Yuuki!" Harry called out as he got up.

"You're not half bad!" The Imp, Yuuki apparently, replied.

"I would hope not!" Harry called back. "So, two out of three?"

"I wouldn't want to hurt your feelings by kicking your ass a second time!" Yuuki replied.

Harry laughed.

Kirito shook his head at the byplay as he made his way to the others. "So, what did I miss, outside of Harry losing?" He asked.

"Not much," Asuna replied. "She wants to challenge you. Apparently she believes that she's the best fighter in ALO."

"A bold claim," Kirito agreed.

"She's good, though," Silica said. "Harry's own style of aggressive defense threw her off for a bit, but she adapted to it quickly. And the only holding back he did was that he didn't approach the fight like an SAO fight against Laughing Coffin."

"Though even then, she probably still would have won," Strea noted.

Kirito nodded to that comment. Despite what people would think, Harry holding back via not approaching the fight the same way as he would have in SAO wasn't him holding back his skill. It was his mindset. In ALO, he approached it as the game it actually was, regardless of how serious in a fight he was, rather than the deadly battle to survive that SAO was.

He turned his attention back to the sparring ring, it seemed that Harry was able to talk his opponent into another round. Kirito wasn't under any illusions that Harry was unaware of him being there, so it was simple for him to determine why Harry was going for another round.

He wanted Kirito to see what the skills of that player were.

He watched at both got into ready stances, the Imp in a simple one-handed middle guard, Harry in his seemingly defensive stance, with the round shield held in front of him and the flat of his sword resting on his shoulder.

From numerous spars in back at the Villa in Selmburg, Kirito knew how deceptive that stance was. Harry was just as comfortable attacking with his shield as he was in using it for defense, and his stance offered him the best balance of both methods.

In an instant, both were moving. Yuuki led off with an attack that Harry easily blocked, though she managed to bring her sword back to parry his attack. Both of them moved, trying to get around the other's guard before another exchange of attacks happened. Each time, Harry blocked the arrack and had his attack blocked as she quickly brought her sword in play to parry.

 _She's fast,_ Kirito thought. _And Harry's playing it defensively right now, but…_

He saw Harry's feet shift slightly and he was on the attack, leading with his shield and knocking Yuuki's sword to her side. She quickly jumped back and avoided his attack before darting back in, aiming her sword to his main hand's side. Harry barely parried it and countered in an unconventional manner.

He dropped his shield and delivered a punch to her gut, forcing her back. He easily kicked the shield up into his hand and readied himself again.

Kirito watched as the match continued, filing his observations away. Yuuki was clearly faster than Harry was, but he was used to sparring with faster opponents and knew how to handle them. Her skills were good, very good, and Kirito would place them at a little above Harry's, not that his friend wasn't making up for the difference with experience. He kept his movements short, simple, and efficient, rather than resorting to more advanced swordplay.

Not that Kirito couldn't already tell who was going to win, and it wasn't going to be Harry. Three minutes later, his observations were proven right when Harry was sent flying out of the sparring ring again.

"So, you done or do you want to get beaten a third time?" Yuuki called out.

"I'm good," Harry called back as he got up and dusted himself off. He looked at Yuuki and walked over to her. "That was fun and I would like to have another spar with you some time," he said as he held his hand out.

"I'd only win again, you know," Yuuki said with a smirk as she took his hand in hers. "Wouldn't want to hurt your ego and make it cry."

"My ego can take it," Harry replied with an equal smirk as they shook hands. Harry then turned his attention to Kirito. "And Kirito's here. You wanted to challenge him, didn't you?"

##

Yuuki turned to look at the group Hadrian was with and spotted a familiar Spriggan with them. _So he's here,_ she thought, clearly recognizing Kirito even though she had last seen him personally back when she, her sister, their friends and the two who joined up with them did and completed the Grand Quest.

He was the one she wanted to have a match with. Not that her match with Hadrian hadn't been fun, but she had come to challenge Kirito. Strea had talked up his skills and she knew that the Gnome wasn't overselling them due to her own having watched some of the SAO footage and seeing him fight there.

So she knew he was skilled, _very_ skilled. It was whether Strea was right and he was more skilled than her that was up for debate. And the only way to see who was better was to have a proper match.

Now she just needed to give him her challenge and see if he would accept.

 **Shiba Compound**

August walked into the room that his godmother had arranged for him to have the meeting with his stepfather. It was secure and private and away from gawkers. Since a notable number of Japanese still reacted to dark skin as an exotic novelty, meeting Luke in public? Problematic.

Not that they still didn't get odd looks in America when he called Luke "Dad".

Ami was looking after Alice right now, so he didn't need to worry about his daughter trying to butt in and interrupt the meeting.

Not that either he or his stepfather would begrudge her and both would happily humor her. He, because he had missed far too many moments of his daughter's life since she was born. And Luke, because she was his granddaughter.

Still, better to get the meeting over with and then the both of them could happily spoil Alice with attention to their heart's content.

"I'm surprised it took this long for you, mom, or anyone else to show up," he said without preamble.

"Things have been busy back home," Luke said as he looked at August. "You still need to put some bulk and muscle on, but you're looking better than when I last saw you, when you were stuck in SAO."

"Ami makes sure I eat right and I've been exercising," August said blandly. "Still, it's good to see you, Dad."

Luke smiled. "And it's good to see you out of that damned game," he replied. "Your mother is making sure that Aladdin won't implode on itself when she takes some much needed time off and comes here. She not only wants to see you with her own eyes, but she hasn't met Alice yet."

August nodded. "Who's she leaving in charge?" He asked.

"Richards will be taking the reins while she's on leave," Luke replied.

"Garret?" August asked.

Luke nodded.

"So, I take it you arrived early because you want to find out about SAO then," August said.

"Among other things," Luke said.

"Well, get comfortable, it's a long story."

 **Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

Kirito parried Yuuki's strike, forcing her to take a few steps back to avoid his counter, not that her darting in to attack again did her any good.

Yuuki was fast, as fast as Asuna is, maybe slightly faster. It was pushing his Hypersense's ability to essentially predict her movements a moment before she made them to the same degree as if it were a match against Asuna at any rate.

Skill wise, she was certainly up there and her self-proclaimed title of being the best fighter in ALO may be an exaggeration, she was certainly one of the best. While her actual skills were definitely Assault Team quality, he would gauge them at being a little below Harry's, which was still quite skilled, it was her speed.

 _How she came by those skills is a question,_ Kirito thought. _Maybe she's just that talented and put in the effort to bring them to this level._

And he knew that even with talent, no one got as good as she was, or any of Steel Phoenix for that matter, without putting the time in. She didn't fight like someone who learned a formal style like Kendo, though. So… how?

Their blades clashed together and he locked hers into a corps a corps.

"You're good," Yuuki said.

"I've had a lot of practice," Kirito replied. "And I think you have a similar reason. You… don't really log out often, do you?"

Yuuki's eyes flashed and she broke the lock their blades were in, pushing Kirito back. She was on him in a flash, forcing Kirito to desperately block, parry and dodge her rapid and furious strikes. _I think I touched a sore spot,_ he thought wryly as another part of his mind began to break down her attacks. For all their speed and ferocity, they were sloppier and from what he saw of her grip...

He parried her next strike with a hard blow, knocking her sword out of her hand. Before she could dart over to it, she was definitely fast enough, he had his sword at her throat.

"Do you yield?" He asked.

Yuuki's eyes darted about for a moment, as if she was determining if there was any action she could take, before her shoulders slumped. "I yield," she replied sourly.

Kirito nodded and brought his sword away from her throat before he carefully backed away. Once he was a safe enough distance from her, he saluted her with his blade and sheathed it. "You know, I don't think we have anything planned right now, so… care to join us for a few drinks at the Sword's Rest?" He asked. "And feel free to invite your friends." He gave a glance to the side, where a group of players were looking on with shock on their faces.

##

Ran had to admit, she was surprised. She knew how good her sister was, so seeing her get beaten in a fight was surprising. She only told her twin recently that she would eventually go up against someone better than she was, but she didn't expect it to be this soon.

"Yuuki… lost?" She heard Jun ask in shock.

"Well, she did go up against the best fighter among the SAO Survivors," Nori said. "If anyone could have beaten her, it would be him. Well, maybe the Undine with his group as well if the rumors are true."

Ran noticed the Sylph beckon her and the others over. "It looks like they want to talk to us," she said to everyone. "Well, let's not be rude."

 **Shiba Compound**

August watched at Luke's eyes and posture as he summarized his two years in SAO. His stepfather kept his face neutral throughout it, the benefits of two decades as one of Aladdin's top agents, but August knew how to read the man.

Luke was clearly less than pleased by some elements of the summary, such as how long it took for him to figure out who Kayaba was masquerading as, but all in all, he seemed to be satisfied. Even on that point, it was less "should have been faster" and more "it would have been so much easier".

"You definitely kept yourself busy," Luke said. "Mostly working with the player, Argo, in helping her ensure that her information was accurate, but you also made your own contributions of helping people clear Sword Art Online."

August nodded. "Of course," he replied. "Both Argo and I had to go out in order to make sure our combat abilities were satisfactory, and the best way was often to verify information on things ourselves when we could. It also allowed us to get more information on Aincrad, as those who gave us information were often missing out on details that could be useful. They would give us the most pertinent bits, but that was about it most of the time."

"Informants tend to be like that," Luke said. "They tell you what they think is important to know, but they always seem to miss out on some detail or another."

August nodded. "All too true," he admitted. "Anyway, Dad, is there anything else you want to know?"

"There is a lot I would like to know, but most of it can wait for later," Luke said. Then, he smirked. "Now, show me my granddaughter."

 **April 28, 2025 - Alfheim, Terun**

Chrysheight stumbled as he landed and made a mental note to keep the way new players were welcomed into ALO in mind for later. In case he decided to make an alt account. As soon as he got his bearings, he looked around at his surroundings.

Terun was a city that seemed to rise out of the lake it was in the center of, with walkways and platforms crisscrossing the surface of the lake, all of which were arranged like the spokes of a wheel, or the legs of a star. From what he could tell, he was in a plaza that was in the center of the city, allowing him to see several towers and from a glance upward, they seemed to serve as a jumping off point for players to take off from and land on.

 _Not a bad design choice,_ he thought. The information about the game he had looked up said that flight was limited, with unlimited flight being a quest reward for completing a notoriously difficult quest that had a very low successful completion rate so far.

Not that he would have the time to gain the skills needed to even consider attempting the quest. Some of the necessary skills, like voluntary flight, he may learn when he had the time to dedicate to it, but playing the game was merely a bonus to why he had decided to create an account and character.

If he couldn't make the arrangements to meet with certain people in the real world due to having been warned off from trying, perhaps he could arrange for a coincidental meeting with them here. And there was a possibility for him to verify a suspicion of his about a couple of their associates.

But first, he would have to take the time to learn the basics of Alfheim Online and gather what information was available on certain players here in Terun.


	8. Looking to the Future and Present

Mystic Knight Online: Worlds to Sow

Chapter 8: Looking to the Future and Present

 _What, where am I?_ Harry thought as he looked at his surroundings. It seemed to be a living room, given the couch, chairs, and a few tables next to each. He saw a few books on the tables and he idly picked one up to look at the cover.

 _Huh, Tugger Nutts._ He mused. _Haven't seen any of those books since Aincrad._ The English was fairly basic, with simple grammar and vocabulary, but he could appreciate how much skill it took to write something where someone who may have only learned the basics could still get the humor, even if the numerous plays on words went over their heads.

Putting the book down, he looked at the walls. He could see some familiar swords, shields and even a several daggers mounted on the wall. Each with a story behind them, and each which had been used by either him or Keiko in their adventures through Aincrad.

 _Heh, I remember those two,_ he thought as he looked at a seemingly simple and basic blade mounted over a similarly simple shield. _Saved my life more than once until I replaced them a few floors after that field boss on the Twenty-Seventh._

He idly moved his right hand, as if opening a menu and blinked a bit as the Menu came up. Going to his equipment list, he saw the gear that he had at the end still there.

 _Well, that explains it,_ he thought. _This is Aincrad, but why…?_

His wondering was interrupted when the patter of small feet came to his ears and he turned just in time to have a small girl collide into him.

"Found you, Papa!" She said cheerfully.

Harry looked down at her and smiled. _Papa?_ He wondered.

"Now, Sakura, you know you shouldn't be running around like that," came a familiar woman's voice.

Harry looked up to see an older Keiko walk in, her usually smooth gait only slightly turned into a waddle by the visible signs of pregnancy. A slightly larger Pina was hovering over his wife's shoulders, the feathered dragon's wings flapping in that seemingly lazy beat that allowed her to remain in the air seemingly indefinitely when she chose to.

He took in the sight of his wife's warm reddish-brown eyes, with her hair hanging loosely, as she just looked at him and smiled.

 **May 4, 2025 - Nerima, Potter-Black Apartment**

Harry came awake as the sun's light became impossible to ignore. He yawned and shook his head to clear the residual drowsiness and looked around his small room. There was the bookshelf which held many of his books from Hogwarts, along with some of the various knickknacks he had picked up in Diagon Alley, his computer with the hooked up AmuSphere was on the desk next to the window. And his dresser was next to his closet.

"Been a couple of weeks since my dreams took me back to Aincrad," he said to himself as he got out of his bed. "At least it wasn't a bloody nightmare this time."

He looked at his bed and decided that he would make it after he wrote down what he could recall about his dream. Doctor Shimada had requested that he write down what he could remember of any dreams and nightmares that took him back to Aincrad. All part of his psychological counseling, of course.

Privately, Harry suspected that it was so that his psychological state could be monitored due to an understandable suspicion that his psychological counselor thought he had Shell Shock. Given his nightmares, not to mention his high awareness of everything even months later, he couldn't blame the man for thinking it.

He opened the journal he kept on the desk and flipped to a blank page.

 _5/4/2025_

 _Last night, my dreams took me back to Aincrad, though it wasn't a nightmare this time, thank God. Instead, it was about one of those things we talked about, my desire to start a family with Keiko._..

He continued to write down his recollections of the dream, which were surprisingly clear to him, smiling. It was a happy dream and something he felt would be a good future to work toward.

In a few years.

 **Nerima, Ayano Residence**

Keiko finished writing down her dream, smiling at the thought behind it. Herself and Harry, in their own place, as parents. And the girl, so clearly their daughter, had the name she had occasionally thought that she would name one of her children. No need to come up with a name based on the Periodic Table, but following the floral motif that Harry's mother's did. It… fit for some reason.

 _Hmm, Sakura Potter?_ She thought before shaking her head. _No, Sakura Lily Potter._ That seemed most agreeable. A mix of Japanese and English, and honoring her husband- _fiancé's_ \- mother. She felt that she would be mentally correcting their relationship in the real world until they _did_ marry.

Still the thought was a happy one, for all that it had been back on Aincrad. A nice reminder that not everything in SAO was bad, and that the two of them did wonder if they could have built a future there.

Not that doing so would replace reality. Dreams were nice, they could show possibilities to work toward, but they were a pale shadow to the Real World. Faults and all.

And SAO and ALO, those strange places in-between. World Seed worlds. Virtual worlds.

They were all Reality, but they weren't the same reality.

 _SAO was Reality in its own way,_ she thought. _Just as ALO is. And the virtual worlds that will come. But they aren't_ our _Reality._

Maybe in some other times and places, those definitions of Reality were the same as the Reality of the Real World was to her. And maybe she and Harry were in those worlds as well.

An interesting thought.

 **May 6, 2025 - Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

Rain reached into the forge with tongs and pulled the glowing hot metal out of it before placing it on the anvil. She picked up the hammer that she had lying on the bench next to it and took a measuring look at the ingot before nodding. Raising her hammer, she brought it down to strike the ingot with a loud clang.

One, two, three strikes, pause and assess.

One, two, three strikes, pause and assess.

One, two, three strikes, pause and assess.

On her fourth iteration of the routine she developed, the system began to take control and the ingot began to take shape.

One, two, three strikes, pause and assess.

The ingot was beginning to look less like a hunk of glowing hot metal and more like the blade she was looking to forge. Two, maybe three, more iterations left.

One, two, three strikes, pause and assess.

One, two, three strikes, pause and assess.

The system then completely took over and the hammered ingot began to morph in front of her into the blade of a sword, the end where the hilt should be narrowing so that it could be properly mounted and holes where the pins to hold it would be. As soon as it was done, she picked the still glowing metal and carefully placed it into a nearby quenching bucket of heated oil to complete the hardening process.

Taking out the blade, she cleaned off the oil scale with a coarse blacksmithing rag and then placed it into an oven designed to direct the heat where she wanted it to go in the amounts needed and watched it carefully, flipping the sword to ensure that it was evenly reheated on both sides.

As soon as the spine of the blade was a plum color, lightening to the edges to a straw yellow, on both sides- she had messed up this part a number of times while she was learning the hardening and tempering process from Liz- she placed it on a rack to cool.

""Huh, not bad, Rain," Liz said from behind her.

Rain turned to see her fellow Leprechaun and smiled. "You think so?" She asked.

"I did this for two years in SAO," Lisbeth replied. "I can tell when the metal is properly tempered, even with how ALO allows you to be more involved in the process than simply letting the system do all the work for you. Still simpler and quicker than how it would be in the real world, but they did their homework."

"They probably consulted professional blacksmiths on the process, even with the simplification," Rain noted. "At least with the more European style blades, the process is simpler than with katanas."

"Tell me about it," Lisbeth grumbled. "I still can't make them consistently without fully using the system assist. There are only five blacksmiths in ALO who can do it the hard way and I swear that they're trained to do it in the real world."

"How often do you manage?" Rain asked. "Without using the system assist the entire way that is?"

"About one in ten times," Lisbeth admitted. "Getting the differential hardening right is, well, hard. Worth it when you get it right, though."

Rain nodded. ALO's option to be more involved in the smithing process allowed for the production of higher quality blades on a more reliable basis than using the system assist the entire way as a reward for the added difficulty. The system assist provided consistent and serviceable quality, which is good enough for most players, but for blacksmiths like Lisbeth, being "good enough" wasn't what they wanted.

Lisbeth had made a successful business in SAO by being good at what she did, with a large player client base. While she wasn't the best blacksmith for forging weapons, Gilbrean held that position, she did good work. Steel Phoenix wouldn't have been some of her most loyal customers otherwise. The option to do it closer to the hard way was something she took to like a duck to water as soon as she learned of it.

Just as Rain was taking to it, even if smithing was going to be more a hobby for her than a chosen profession. It was a challenge, and anyone who went through SAO and made a living beyond the Twenty-Fifth and didn't retire from going out had only one response to a challenge.

They would accept that challenge.

 **Arun**

Silica easily dodged her sparring partner's attack and gave a push to his chest that put him off balance before sweeping his legs out from under him. "You need to mind your footing," she said.

The Sylph who was her sparring partner, Rigel, picked himself up. "But the Grand Quest will be only in the air," he complained. "Why would footing matter there?"

"Because good footwork improves your balance and balance plays just as important a role in the air as it does on the ground," Silica replied. "Getting into the habit of keeping your balance in on the ground will help you with doing so in the air."

"She's right," Harry said as he walked up. "Dear, if you wouldn't mind, allow me to demonstrate."

Silica raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" She asked.

"Sometimes, it's best to show," Harry replied with a smirk as he manifested his wings and began to hover.

Silica returned his smirk before looking at the assembled players. "Everyone, watch," she said as the then closed the distance between herself and her husband in a blink.

##

Rigel's eyes widened in shock as he watched as Silica began to rapidly attack Hadrian from numerous different angles, the Sylph barely moving as he blocked or deflected each attack with his shield or his sword. _How strong is he?_ He thought in shock.

"Hmm," a Gnome next to him said. "Now that's interesting."

"What is?" Rigel asked.

"Look at his movements." Came the reply.

Rigel watched the next series of attacks, paying attention to how Hadrian moved. _Wait a second, he's… so_ that's _how he's doing it._ He watched a few more attacks, just to make sure he saw right. Hadrian wasn't bracing as if he was on the ground. He was moving slightly _into_ the attack meeting momentum with his own. Not much, but that small amount of movement was ensuring that he was not being pushed back or being left open.

If looked from a wider perspective, it would seem as if he was standing on air, his feet braced against an invisible platform and his balance- _"_ So that's how he's doing it," Rigel muttered. He had fought in the air plenty of times, he knew how easy it was to be sent off balance and to be left open due to the lack of a firm platform to brace himself against.

So Hadrian used movement to give himself just a little bit of momentum to keep himself from being forced back. Granted, in a full out fight, the movements would be greater and with more room, but he could now see how the habit of having good footing from the start could translate in the air once you made the counterintuitive leap of logic to translate that to fighting in the air.

After all, what is footwork, but making use of the upward force provided by what you're standing on to keep your balance? In the air, you didn't have that, so you had to do it yourself.

Hadrian was making it look easy, but Rigel chalked that up to his skill and a significant amount of practice. _Wonder how many times he became a Dirt Dart getting the hang of it,_ he thought. But he now knew why Silica was emphasizing footwork and balance.

"So, you see what I was doing?" Hadrian asked as he landed.

Rigel nodded. "I do," he replied. "And can you give me some pointers on doing it right?"

 **Alfheim, Terun**

Chrysheight let out a weary breath as he finished the spellcasting exam that all Undines were required to pass if they wanted to strike it out on their own. Despite the posturing and positioning between each faction, Undines were well known to be in high demand due to the fact that they were the faction best at healing magic. Meaning that they were often asked to join groups and raids heading into challenging and dangerous areas within Alfheim Online. Lord Hollen, not unaware of this, managed to use this fact as a way to improve the influence of the Undines as well as ensure that Undine territory was never threatened.

He had demonstrated his basic competency with the main healing spells an Undine was required to know, as well as demonstrating that he also practiced some offensive magic. Technically, he could strike it out on his own right now, and he intended to make a trip to Arun soon enough, but he knew that he still needed to cover for other areas he was weak in, such as flight. He could use the controller and go through the basic practice courses easily enough, but unassisted flight was still beyond his abilities right now and was likely to be something he would probably continue to be working on for some time.

 _So be it,_ He thought as he made the gesture with his hand to bring the controller up. _I am now able to head out. Now, I should probably check Arun or Yggdrasil City first. That's where they seem to be based from the information I gathered._

Now he just had to find those he was seeking. It shouldn't be _too_ difficult, should it?

 **May 9, 2025 - Kamakura, Japan**

Gabriel put the report down on the desk and got a thoughtful frown on his face. It was to be expected that someone would see different potential in VR than everyone else and try to do something with it, but he was surprised at the details of it. _Mind control, manipulating how people thought,_ he thought. _Small thinking, but in the right direction._

It had taken the team some digging, including some careful hacking of RECT's own networks, the exploited vulnerabilities of which were shortly closed, Levi Grayson, the hacker that lead his penetration team, was already chewing them out for getting caught and losing a vulnerability that could have been exploited more. Not to mention the risk of being backtracked.

Not that it was likely. The various teams working the cyber end knew to use something that would make them effectively anonymous and there were apparently dozens of services, legal, semi-legal and outright illegal that could be used. And his penetration team used systems that they personally put together, purchasing the components needed via their own methods and with numerous cutouts.

Though why they needed systems that had all the capability of a high end Gaming PC puzzled him. No matter, if they said they needed that capability, he was willing to trust their expertise in the matter.

He considered the report again. Noboyuki Sugou's plans for using the VR environment for something as mundane as mind control or altering the thoughts of people was, while promising and something that he would forward to some of his peers back in Langley, not what he was looking for.

What was mind control and manipulating what a person thought, than manipulating the soul and treading into the realm of gods?

 _And without relying on something like magic and those who could use it,_ he thought to himself. Magic users were useful, if they could be brought out of their arrogance, provincialism and not invented here attitudes, but were not an asset that he considered completely reliable. Good for using for his own ends, yes, but not one that should be relied on exclusively.

After all, No-Majs like him had already exceeded what magic users had ever done of in numerous fields as it stood. Who was it who made it to the moon? Split the Atom? No-Majs, not users of magic. Granted, at cost and a lot of trial and error, but tell them something is impossible and they would ask why was it impossible and how they could make it possible.

They had even begun to figure out how to break the Light Speed Barrier, even if they didn't have the technology or resources to do so right now. Miguel Alcubierre developed the math and science, and with that knowledge, it was only a matter of time.

And by the time they did that, humanity, with himself, Gabriel Miller, paving the path to the future, will have usurped the gods themselves.

 **May 12, 2025 - Nishitokyo, SAO Survivor School**

Asuna looked at Mizore when she and the others met up with her in the school's courtyard. Earlier that day, the disguised kitsune had informed her that she needed to talk with everyone about something, but it wasn't so critical that it couldn't wait until the end of the day.

"Ah, Aa-chan," Mizore said with the closest thing to a normal smile that she seemed capable of on her face. Not her "I know something you don't" smile, or the smile that heralded her about to do or say something that had everyone in the group semi-affectionately refer to her as a pain in the ass gadfly on occasion. A more normal one, as it seemed to be in Argo's nature to have at least some teasing edge to her smiles.

"Mizore," Asuna acknowledged. "You said you had something to tell us?"

The kitsune nodded as she seamlessly integrated herself into the group as they headed for the school's gates. "I do," she replied. "Nothing secret or requiring privacy, or I would arrange to either have you all meet me at my apartment or have us meet somewhere else, but it's something I found out that I think you all need to know."

"Given that you're wanting to meet us all out here, rather than inside ALO, what bit of stupidity is about to come our way?" Harry asked.

Mizore shrugged "Don't really know if it's going to be stupidity or not," she replied. "But someone's been asking questions for the last week about you all inside ALO."

"That's not exactly new information," Silica said drily. "For all that we don't make it a habit of advertising it, it's no secret in ALO that we're SAO Survivors and we've been approached and asked about it."

"Not what I mean," Mizore countered. "This person has been asking about you all specifically, and not in the context of being SAO Survivors. But what you're up to, where you're usually operating from, times you're normally active, things like that."

Asuna looked at the others for a moment before turning her attention back to the kitsune. "We're listening," she said.

Mizore nodded. "He's been careful about it," she said. "He wouldn't ask for all those details on any one person, and any questions on details were general and indirect. You guys are known in ALO, especially with how you've been helping train groups up so that they could stand a chance when tackling the Grand Quest, so you have a reputation. It's the fact that the questions were _varied_ over time that I was pieced together that he would be able to build a very accurate profile of everyone's habits within ALO."

"I can see where this is going," Nijika sighed. At everyone's looks she shrugged. "It's basically how Hiyori and I tracked you all down in SAO when you all got active again after… well, after that one incident." She shrugged. "More subtle, but basically the same."

"Wouldn't he have learned what he needed to know sooner?" Hiyori asked. "Wait, that's not it. He knows where we would normally be in ALO when we're on and our usual activity times. If all he was doing was trying to approach and meet us, he's had opportunity."

Asuna nodded. She knew what Hiyori was implying. Whoever it was, was not trying to approach them, he or she was trying to get them to approach. "And there is no reason to believe that this person isn't aware that other SAO Survivors are playing ALO, like a certain information broker."

"Trying to get us to approach, rather than approach us," Kazuto murmured. "Control the meeting, or so this guy thinks. In the real world, that tactic would work, but in ALO?" He smirked. "Whoever it is doesn't know us, but thinks they do. Probably has a bit of knowledge of how we would act on this from the SAO streams."

"Hasn't been watching enough of them, then," Harry said before looking at Mizore. "So, we have a name for this player?"

 **Alfheim, Yggdrasil City**

Crysheight walked into the Sword's Rest Tavern and gave it a cursory look to see if Steel Phoenix was here, as it was a known haunt of theirs, not that he expected them to be here. He had been to the tavern before and they never were, after all.

It was not an overly large place, with only enough tables to hold maybe five or so groups, a bar, and so on. Other taverns and restaurants were much more spacious, but the smaller size of the place didn't make it seemed cramped. Instead, it seemed cozy. As if it was one of those small places where one could get food for lunch in many of the side streets of Tokyo. And the small size gave the service a more personal feel.

"So, you're the one who has been looking for them," came a voice from the side, catching Cryshieght's attention. He looked to his right and saw a Salamander and a Leprechaun giving him looks.

"Them?" He asked.

"Steel Phoenix," The Salamander replied.

Chrysheight must have shown his shock at them realizing what he had been up to due to the Salamander's smirk.

"You underestimate Argo," the Salamander replied. "She ran the best information network in SAO and has been building one here in ALO. She sent the info out to those of us who went through SAO when she connected the dots. She probably told Steel Phoenix personally in the real world as well."

Chrysheight nodded. "And now there are SAO Survivors out on the lookout?" He asked.

"Naturally," the Salamander replied. "Regardless of what some may think of them, a lot of people owe them big for getting us all out of SAO."

Chrysheight nodded again. He could also hear and understand the unstated assertion that the SAO Survivors were also going to look out for each other. By now, they were well aware of just how Japanese society saw them and that what was already being done for them was going to be the extent of it.

It was already being seen as favoring them far more than they deserved, despite the fact that every SAO Survivor was going to be undergoing regular counseling for the foreseeable future and they had all been put on watch lists for potential future criminal activity. Even with those aspects to salve the opinions of the critics, showing that the Japanese Government was taking the potential threats they could pose to Japanese society into account, criticisms still abounded.

He had kept track of the demographics of the SAO Survivors, what they were doing now that they were free of it, what they were making of their lives, and saw the signs that they were becoming a very tightly knit community of their own. Their own response to the quiet social isolation that was forming.

But the social issues of the SAO Survivors, a microcosm of issues that the Japanese people were aware, if not publicly acknowledging, of were not his concern. There were answers he hoped to get, either directly, of via inference from what was said and not said, by Steel Phoenix.

Despite Kayaba's assertions when he stated his motives for SAO, Chrysheight did not believe that they were the extent of what he was doing. Too many things were going on behind the scenes in SAO. And he had a feeling that Steel Phoenix, the Heroes of Aincrad, had an inkling of what.

Chrysheight kept these musings from his expression with some effort, it was harder to hide one's thoughts and emotions online due to the direct neural linking. Instead, he gave a friendly smile to the Salamander. "So, if they are aware that I have been discreetly looking for them, then where are they?" He asked. "And where are my manners? I am called Crysheight here in ALO. And you are?"

"Call me Keita," Keita replied. "My Leprechaun friend here is Sasamaru." The Leprechaun nodded and turned back to his drink. "As for where they are…" He looked over Crysheight's shoulder.

Crysheight turned and saw six players sitting around a table on the opposite side of the tavern, giving him searching looks. _They weren't there before,_ he thought. _So how did they arrive without me noticing?_

"Well, now that you've noticed us," the Sylph among them said drily. "Why don't you order a drink and come on over here. I believe you want to discuss something with us?"


End file.
